AMERICAN 
r IDEA 




JOSEPH B. GILDER 




Copyright}!" 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The American Idea. 



THE 
AMERICAN IDEA 

As Expounded by 
American Statesmen 



Co mp He 4 .^ky 



JOSEPH B. GILDER 



INTRODUCTION BY 

Andrew Carnegie 



o 







NEW YORK ■ DODD, MEAD 
& COMPANY • • • MCMII 






THE LIBRARY Of 

CONGRESS, 
TWo Cowes RGOciv<n) 

SEP. 25 1902 

COP^ B 



Copyright, 1902, 
By Dodd, Mead & Company. 



Firsi Edition Published September, 1902. 






Table of Contents 



The Declaration of Independence, 

The Articles of Confederation, . 

The Constitution of the United States 

Washington's Inaugurals, . 

Washington's Farewell Address, 

The Monroe Doctrine, 

Lincoln's Cooper Institute Speech, 

Lincoln's Inaugurals, 

The Proclamation of Emancipation, 

Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech, 

Webster's Bunker Hill Speech, 

Lowell on Democracy, 

Cleveland on the Self-Made Man, 

Roosevelt on National Duties, 

McKinley's Last Speech, 

Hoar on Free Speech, 

Hay on Our Recent Diplomacy, . 



PAGE 

I 

lO 

29 

64 

82 

114 

122 

161 

183 
187 
189 
228 
238 
262 
283 

295 
299 



y 



Introduction. 



N this volume of the present we have the 
classics of the future in the field of 
Democracy — the imperishable gems 
which must continue to shed their luster 
upon age after age. The American Decla- 
ration of Independence and the Constitu- 
tion resulting therefrom have become the 
greater Magna Charta of the rights and lib- 
erties of Man. Government of the people, 
for the people, and by the people, and the 
equality of the citizen under the Law, con- 
stitute the solid foundation upon which is to 
rest hereafter the whole structure of human 
Government. 

The history of agitation by the people for 
enhanced power shows that concessions 
gained only lead to renewed demands and that 
no finality is possible until pure democracy 
is reached. The question of the suffrage, 
for example, has not yet been settled, even in 
the old home of our English-speaking race. 
Step by step, after prolonged agitation, the 
franchise has been widened, but still " it will 

[vii] 



INT R OP UCr I ON 

not down." It never will be at rest while the 
slightest inequality remains. In the Ameri- 
can Union the national franchise, having 
been settled upon this basis, and adjusting 
itself automatically each decade, is never 
heard of; any change would destroy the 
equality of the citizen, which is equivalent 
to saying that the reign of justice, once es- 
tablished, would give place to injustice. Any 
man's privilege must be every man's right 
before there can be permanent peace. In- 
equality produces dissatisfaction. Equality 
brings content. 

Since the reign of the people must there- 
fore prevail, and their voice be accepted as 
if it were indeed the voice of the highest or 
anarchy ensue, it follows that the most im- 
perative duty of the State is the universal 
education of the masses. Demos must be 
trained to the highest possible standard of 
enlightenment on pain of certain disaster. 
No money which can be usefully spent for 
this indispensable end should be denied. 
Public sentiment should, on the contrary, 
approve the doctrine that the more that can 
be judiciously spent, the better for the coun- 
try. There is no insurance of nations so 
cheap as the enlightenment of the people. 

[viii] 



INTR O D UCT ION 

Fleets and armies being much more likely to 
embroil nations with each other than to insure 
them against attack, there is no insurance 
against war in warlike preparation. Govern- 
ment even if founded upon justice, which 
means equal rights and privileges to every 
citizen, is insecure, for ignorance is incapable 
of recognizing what is essentially wise and 
good. Man must be enlightened in order to 
be able to judge. Hence the fair fabric of Jus- 
tice raised by Numa, says Plutarch, passed 
rapidly away because it was not founded 
upon education. No better reason can be 
given for the decay of a State. Readers 
will find in Washington's Inaugural these 
weighty words : — 

" Promote, then, as an object of primary 
importance, the general diffusion of knowl- 
edge. In proportion as the structure of a 
government gives force to public opinion, it 
is essential that this should be enlightened." 

It is gratifying to know that no country 
has ever devoted such vast sums, or so suc- 
cessfully insured public education, as the 
Republic. It may truly be said of the Ameri- 
can, as Froude said of the Scotch, education 
with him is a passion. The initiative, alert- 
ness, and fertility of resource which the 

[ix] 



INTR O D UCr ION 



American is nowadays credited with display- 
ing, though partly a climatic, is chiefly an 
educational product. 

There is no study more interesting than 
the steady growth of the sentiment of Ameri- 
can nationality — the sway of the United 
Nation over the Individual State. The 
first confederation, although a perpetual 
union, was in many vital respects a rope of 
sand, for it preserved the practical sover- 
eignty of the consenting states. The present 
Constitution, which followed later, laid the 
foundations of one central power, a nation, 
but, as is usual with all written instruments, 
the words used have proved of subordinate 
importance to the interpretations which from 
time to time have been placed upon them. 

Let who will write the laws, he is master 
who interprets them. The United States 
Constitution, justly hailed by Mr. Gladstone 
as " the most wonderful work ever struck off 
at one time by the brain and purpose of 
man," has in no respect shown itself more 
worthy of such praise than in the elastic 
quality it has revealed of extending and con- 
tracting, and its power of adapting itself to 
the development of the nation which seems 
destined to become the most powerful that 

[x] 



INT R O D UCT I O N 

has yet existed. It is not one nation, but 
forty-five nations in one. Three more are 
probably to be admitted this year, with 
others to follow. It has solved the question 
of government by continents. The United 
States of all the Americas, or the United 
States of Europe, could be established and 
placed under this Constitution after a few 
days spent in making the necessary verbal 
and other trifling changes. 

We might go farther and say that conti- 
nents hitherto split into many states, which 
have become armed camps awaiting the 
signal of war against each other, could 
thus combine and win perpetual peace as 
between themselves, and, this beneficent 
task accomplished, the Parliament of Man, 
the Federation of the World, could finally 
be considered as next in order. When that 
day comes, " as come it will for a' that," the 
American Constitution could readily be 
adapted without serious change to unite the 
world under one government dealing with 
international relations, thus banishing from 
the earth its foulest stain, the killing of man 
by man under so-called "civilized" warfare 
— such the latent potentiality of this marvel- 
ous work, because founded upon equal rights 

[xi] 



INT R O D UCr I O N 

and privileges to all. Short of this there is 
injustice; beyond this there is injustice, hence 
unrest — with this there is justice, and hence 
peace, and what is just and equal is capable 
of indefinite extension. 

The Federal idea has proved that the 
freest government of the parts produces the 
strongest government of the whole. Under 
home rule for the various States, jealousy of 
each other, and especially of the central 
government, has weakened so much that 
year after year the States surrender power 
to the Congress of the whole at Washington 
over questions of national import hitherto 
controlled by the respective States in their 
own fashion, thus producing uniformity 
where before lay diversity. Since all the 
forces of to-day are centripetal, the further 
consolidation of the Union is assured. 

The citizen is still fondly devoted to his 
State as he always may be and happy that 
he is its son, but when he draws himself up 
to his full height and wishes to give vent to 
the sentiment of nationality — and this is not 
seldom, for of all men the American is the 
most intensely patriotic — his special State 
is for the moment forgotten. The States 
are all right as far as they go, but let anyone 

[xii] 



INT R D UCr I O N 

just touch " Old Glory," and the many are 
one, — American. 

How long it would take the European 
under federation to reach this glowing de- 
votion to the one flag of their Union is prob- 
lematical, but, in the opinion of the writer, 
not much longer than it has taken the 
American of the former separate and jealous 
states of our own Union, for national pa- 
triotism grows apace when the citizen has 
political equality, and the federation, being 
gigantic, makes his country great among the 
nations, a country for which he cannot help 
being proud to live, if need be to die. 

In this volume place is properly given to 
the Monroe Doctrine, so clearly defined by 
Secretary of State Hay. It was the sug- 
gestion of British Prime Minister Canning, 
who boasted that he had called in the new 
world to redress the balance of the old. 

Nations have their supersensitive nerves, 
which it is the business of the statesmen 
of other nations to know and make due al- 
lowance for. The Monroe Doctrine has 
become the supersensitive nerve of the 
American. Just as we should say, in case 
the inviolability of a British ship was disre- 
garded, there must be restitution or there 

[xiii] 



INT RO D UCTIO N 



will be war, we can say of the Republic, the 
attempt of a foreign power to secure a foot- 
ing upon this continent means war. On 
this issue the Republic would defy the world. 
America for the Americans being now both 
law and gospel to this country, the present 
possessions of European powers are not rel- 
ished, but only tolerated. In the recent 
banishment of Spain from the continent, 
passion, not reason, ruled. Had we been 
able to preserve our equanimity, the conces- 
sions which Spain offered at the last moment 
would have appeared adequate for the time, 
but the whirlwind came, the pent-up feelings 
of the American burst forth, and the question 
he had often pondered over in his mind be- 
fore found fit expression in the inquiry, 
"What is a European nation doing over 
here anyhow .r*" We told Napoleon that 
Mexico was, we thought, a good country for 
the French to migrate from, and it was so. 
We have obtained the West Indies, we have 
obtained Alaska from Russia, by purchase, 
which is the best mode of all, and these 
countries have made themselves our closest 
friends by recognizing the national desire of 
our people to control adjacent territory and 
islands upon our continent. Upon no issue 

[xlv] 



INTR OP U CriON 

would the verdict of the people be so nearly 
unanimous as that of American versus Euro- 
pean rule upon the American Continent. 

Secretary of State Hay in his celebrated 
address to the New York Chamber of Com- 
merce here incorporated, notable for many 
reasons, is perhaps most so for the order in 
which he unconsciously places the Monroe 
Doctrine and the Golden Rule. It reads, 
not the Golden Rule and the Monroe Doc- 
trine, but the reverse. The Secretary spoke 
as he felt and his countrymen feel — although 
the writer, in the calm air of thoughtful 
composition, feels called upon to suggest 
that in future editions it might be advisable 
to consider whether in deference to world- 
wide impressions the Golden Rule should 
not have "priority of nomination." That 
the Monroe Doctrine took first place, how- 
ever, with the orator, cannot lose its signifi- 
cance. 

In any statement bearing upon the Re- 
public, notice must be taken of the ominous 
fact that the war with Spain, with its unex- 
pected, easy and victorious end, has wrought 
the martial spirit of the people up to a danger- 
ously high temperature. There is no doubt 
that the most warlike of people and the ma- 



INTR O D UCTION 



terial out of which can soonest be made the 
most formidable force, both naval and mili- 
tary, is our own. When Washington was 
asked what he would do if beaten in the 
East, as it then seemed he must inevitably 
be after he was driven beyond the Delaware, 
he replied, " Retire beyond the Blue Ridge, 
where we can fight forever." The capacity 
for resistance shown by the Boers in South 
Africa proves that the world in arms could 
make no headway against the Republic 
w^hose young men, man for man, can ride and 
shoot with the Boers, and who, being more 
intelligent and equally patriotic, possess the 
genius of initiative in even greater degree 
than their worthy compeer, the young Boer. 
The nation is therefore immune from serious 
attack at home. As for attack by a naval 
power, that is almost equally impracticable. 
The ports could be closed, the harbors 
mined and countermined, and, above all, an 
edict of non-exportation of food products 
would bring the other principal naval powers 
to famine prices for food to feed their people, 
and compel peace. Britain absolutely de- 
pends upon our food supplies and our cot- 
ton, and could not long feed her people if 
our ports were closed. Germany imports 

[xvi] 



I NT R O D UCTIO N 



largely of food products from the United 
States and would suffer seriously from their 
cessation. It is not within the range of 
probabilities that the Republic, unless it be- 
come aggressive, is ever to be attacked, but 
there is danger in the present temper of the 
people that we may forsake the policy of 
peaceful industrial development under which 
we have become the richest of nations, and 
be involved in the ruinous wars, and ru- 
mors of war which are almost as costly. 

This volume will be read to little advan- 
tage unless the doctrines and advice of 
Washington and Lincoln be taken to heart 
and the reign of peaceful Industrialism, 
marked out for the nation in contradistinc- 
tion to the militarism prevailing elsewhere, 
is kept steadily in view. Under the tidal 
wave of military glory, upheaved by the 
recent campaign against Spain, our late 
President was swept against his own ardent 
wish and his better judgment into a depar- 
ture from the policy of the Fathers of the 
Republic, and for the first time distant terri- 
tory in the tropics was absorbed where our 
own race can never settle. It is a danger- 
ous departure, but hopeful signs are not 
wanting that it is to prove but temporary 

[xvii] 



INT R OP UCr I O N 

and that, as with Cuba, so with the Phib'p- 
pines, the policy adopted by the Republic 
at first will ultimately prevail and it will re- 
turn to its former policy. The Filipinos will 
be invited " to establish a free and independ- 
ent government and thus fulfill the highest 
aspirations of their people," as the Cubans 
were, such being the truly American words 
addressed by that thorough democrat and 
man of the people, the late deeply lamented 
President McKinley. The " Mother of Na- 
tions " is probably to have a rival in her 
offspring, who will also be a creator of free 
peoples, the Republic of Cuba her firstborn, 
the " Republic of the Orient " her second. 
America for the Americans involves the 
Philippines for the Filipinos. True glory 
for the American Republic lies here. 

President Roosevelt, in his first message 
to Congress, recognizes the Philippines as 
" a burden." Secretary of the Navy Long, 
in his last speech, looks forward to their in- 
dependence. Chairman Schurman of the 
Philippine Commission sees no justification 
of our present attitude unless it leads to 
independence. The closing words in his 
book upon the subject are of much signifi- 
cance : — 

[xviii] 



INTRODUCTION 

" To repeat what ought not to need repeti- 
tion anywhere within the limits of our Repub- 
lic, any decent kind of government of Filipi- 
nos by Filipinos is better than the best 
possible government of Filipinos by Ameri- 
cans." 

Governor-General Taft of the Philippines 
is of the opinion that it would have been 
better if we had never taken them. Public 
opinion is steadily moving in accordance 
with these views, and those statesmen abroad 
who, wishing the Republic no good, are so 
solicitous that we should remain entangled 
and embarrassed by continuing to hold terri- 
tory in the tropics and to suppress the divine 
aspirations of the Filipinos for self-govern- 
ment are, in the opinion of the writer, to be 
grievously disappointed. The American 
Democracy has never yet failed to keep the 
Republic in the true path marked out by the 
Fathers. 

Freed from this prolific source of possible 
danger, the sky above the American has no 
threatening clouds. All moves steadily to 
improved conditions ; existing causes lead to 
her rapid development, material, moral, and 
intellectual. The central government grow- 
ing in power and popularity, the individual 

[xix] 



INT R O D UCTIO N 

citizen more and more patriotic, the masses 
of the people more intelligent — the poor not 
so poor, and the rich more alive to the truth 
that their surplus is a sacred trust, to be 
administered during life for the general 
good. 

Founded upon justice, the equality of its 
citizens, resting upon an educated and loyal 
people, immune from foreign attack, a fertile 
continent to develop, and the teachings of 
the Fathers as their guide — should Democ- 
racy fall under such conditions, it falls, like 
Lucifer, never to hope again. But the writer 
sees no premonitions of such fall in the 
horoscope of the Republic, the product and 
symbol of triumphant Democracy. 

ANDREW CARNEGIE. 



[--] 




The Declaration 
of Independence 

In Congress, July 4, 1776. — The Unani- 
mous Declaration of the Thirteen 
United States of America. 

HEN in the Course of human events, 
it becomes necessary for one peo- 
ple to dissolve the political bands 
which have connected them with another, 
and to assume among the Powers of the 
earth, the separate and equal station to 
which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's 
God entitle them, a decent respect to the 
opinions of mankind requires that they should 
declare the causes which impel them to the 
separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
that all men are created equal, that they are 
endowed by their Creator with certain unal- 
ienable Rights, that among these are Life, 
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That 
to secure these rights, Governments are insti- 
tuted among Men, deriving their just powers 

[I] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

from the consent of the governed. That 
whenever any Form of Government becomes 
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of 
the People to alter or to abolish it, and to 
institute a new Government, laying its foun- 
dation on such principles and organizing its 
powers in such form, as to them shall seem 
most likely to effect their Safety and Happi- 
ness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that 
Governments long established should not be 
changed for light and transient causes; and 
accordingly all experience hath shown, that 
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while 
evils are sufferable, than to right themselves 
by abolishing the forms to which they are 
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses 
and usurpations, pursuing invariably the 
same Object evinces a design to reduce them 
under absolute Despotism, it is their right, 
it is their duty, to throw off such Govern- 
ment, and to provide new Guards for their 
future security. — Such has been the patient 
sufferance of these Colonies ; and such is now 
the necessity which constrains them to alter 
their former Systems of Government. The 
history of the present King of Great Britain 
is a history of repeated injuries and usurpa- 
tions, all having in direct object the estab- 

[2] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

lishment of an absolute Tyranny over these 
States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted 
to a candid world. 

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the 
most wholesome and necessary for the public 
good. 

He has forbidden his Governors to pass 
Laws of immediate and pressing importance, 
unless suspended in their operation till his 
Assent should be obtained; and when so sus- 
pended, he has utterly neglected to attend to 
them. 

He has refused to pass other Laws for the 
accommodation of large districts of people, un- 
less those people would relinquish the right 
of Representation in the Legislature, a right 
inestimable to them and formidable to ty- 
rants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies 
at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant 
from the depository of their Public Records, 
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into 
compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved Representative Houses 
repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness 
his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused for a long time, after such 
dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; 

[3] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable 
of Annihilation, have returned to the People 
at large for their exercise; the State remain- 
ing in the mean time exposed to all the 
dangers of invasion from without, and con- 
vulsions within. 

He has endeavoured to prevent the popula- 
tion of these States ; for that purpose ob- 
structing the Laws for Naturalization of 
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to en- 
courage their migration hither, and raising 
the conditions of new Appropriations of 
Lands. 

He has obstructed the Administration of 
Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for 
establishing Judiciary Powers. 

He has made Judges dependent on his 
Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and 
the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, 
and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass 
our People, and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace. 
Standing Armies without the Consent of our 
legislature. 

He has affected to render the Military in- 
dependent of and superior to the Civil Power. 

He has combined with others to subject 

W 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitu- 
tion, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giv- 
ing his Assent to their Acts of pretended 
Legislation: 

For quartering large bodies of armed 
troops among us : 

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, 
from Punishment for any Murders which 
they should commit on the Inhabitants of 
these States: 

For cutting off our Trade with all parts 
of the world : 

For imposing taxes on us without our 
Consent: 

For depriving us in many cases, of the 
benefits of Trial by Jury: 

For transporting us beyond Seas to be 
tried for pretended offences : 

For abolishing the free System of English 
Laws in a neighbouring Province, establish- 
ing therein an Arbitrary government, and 
enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at 
once an example and fit instrument for intro- 
ducing the same absolute rule into these 
Colonies: 

For taking away our Charters, abolishing 
our most valuable Laws, and altering funda- 
mentally the Forms of our Governments: 

[5] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

For suspending our own Legislatures, and 
declaring themselves invested with Power to 
legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated Government here, by 
declaring us out of his Protection and waging 
War against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our 
Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the 
lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large 
armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat 
the works of death, desolation and tyranny, 
already begun with circumstances of Cruelty 
& perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most 
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the 
Head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow Citizens 
taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms 
against their Country, to become the execu- 
tioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to 
fall themselves by their Hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections 
amongst us, and has endeavoured to brinir 
on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the mer- 
ciless Indian Savages, whose known rule 
of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction 
of all ages, sexes and conditions. 

In every stage of these Oppressions We 

[6] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

have Petitioned for Redress in the most 
humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have 
been answered only by repeated injury. A 
Prince, whose character is thus marked by 
every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit 
to be the ruler of a free People. 

Nor have We been wanting in attention 
to our Brittish brethren. We have warned 
them from time to time of attempts by their 
legislature to extend an unwarrantable juris- 
diction over us. We have reminded them 
of the circumstances of our emigration and 
settlement here. We have appealed to their 
native justice and magnanimity, and we have 
conjured them by the ties of our common 
kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, 
would inevitably interrupt our connections 
and correspondence. They too have been 
deaf to the voice of justice and of consan- 
guinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the 
necessity, which denounces our Separation, 
and hold them, as we hold the rest of man- 
kind. Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the 
united States of America, in General Con- 
gress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme 
Judge of the world for the rectitude of our 
intentions, do, in the Name, and by Author- 

[7] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ity of the good People of these Colonies, 
solemnly publish and declare, That these 
United Colonies are, and of Right ought to 
be Free and Independent States; that they 
are Absolved from all Allegiance to the 
British Crown, and that all political connec- 
tion between them and the State of Great 
Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved ; 
and that as Free and Independent States, 
they have full Power to levy War, conclude 
Peace, contract Alliances, establish Com- 
merce, and to do all other Acts and Things 
which Independent States may of right do. 
And for the support of this Declaration, 
with a firm reliance on the Protection of 
Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to 
each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our 
sacred Honor. 

JOHN HANCOCK. 

New Hampshire — Josiah Bartlett, Wm. 
Whipple, Matthew Thornton. 

Massachusetts Bay — Saml. Adams, John 
Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry. 

Rhode Island — Step. Hopkins, William 
Ellery. 

ConnecticMt — Roger Sherman, Sam'el 
Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott. 

[8] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

New York — Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, 
Frans. Lewis, Lewis Morris. 

New Jersey— ^\Q\i^, Stockton, Jno. With- 
erspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. 
Clark. 

Pennsylvania — Robt. Morris, Benjamin 
Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. 
Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wil- 
son, Geo. Ross. 

Delaware — Csesar Rodney, Geo. Read, 
Tho. M'Kean. 

Maryland — Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, 
Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. 

Virginia — George Wythe, Richard Henry 
Lee, Th. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. 
Nelson, jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter 
Braxton. 

North Carolina — Wm. Hooper, Joseph 
Hewes, John Penn. 

South Carolina — Edward Rutledge, Thos. 
Hey ward, Junr., Thomas Lynch, J unr., Arthur 
Middleton. 

Georgia — Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, 
Geo. Walton. 



[9] 



The Articles of 
Confederation 

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union 
between the States of New Hampshire, Massa- 
chusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plan- 
tations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland^ Virginia^ 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, 

Article I. — The style of this Confederacy- 
shall be, "The United States of America." 

Art. II. — Each State retains its sover- 
eignty, freedom, and independence, and every 
power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not 
by this Confederation expressly delegated to 
the United States in Congress assembled. 

Art. III. — The said States hereby sev- 
erally enter into a firm league of friendship 
with each other, for their common defense, 
the security of their liberties, and their 
mutual and general welfare, binding them- 
selves to assist each other against all force 
offered to, or attacks made upon them, or 
any of them, on account of religion, sover- 
eignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever. 

[lo] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

Art. IV. — The better to secure and per- 
petuate mutual friendship and intercourse 
among the people of the different States in 
this Union, the free inhabitants of each of 
these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugi- 
tives from justice excepted, shall be entitled 
to all privileges and immunities of free citi- 
zens in the several States; and the people 
of each State shall have free ingress and 
egress to and from any other State, and shall 
enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and 
commerce subject to the same duties, imposi- 
tions, and restrictions as the inhabitants 
thereof respectively; provided that such 
restrictions shall not extend so far as to pre- 
vent the removal of property imported into 
any State to any other State of which the 
owner is an inhabitant; provided also, that 
no imposition, duties, or restriction shall be 
laid by any State on the property of the 
United States or either of them. If any 
person guilty of, or charged with, treason, 
felony, or other high misdemeanor in any 
State shall flee from justice and be found in 
any of the United States, he shall, upon 
demand of the governor or executive power 
of the State from which he fled, be delivered 
up and removed to the State having jurisdic- 

["] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

tion of his offense. Full faith and credit 
shall be given in each of these States to the 
records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the 
courts and magistrates of every other State. 
Art. V. — For the more convenient man- 
agement of the general interests of the United 
States, delegates shall be annually appointed 
in such manner as the Legislature of each 
State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the 
first Monday in November, in every year, 
with a power reserved to each State to recall 
its delegates, or any of them, at any time 
within the year, and to send others in their 
stead for the remainder of the year. No 
State shall be represented in Congress by less 
than two, nor by more than seven members ; 
and no person shall be capable of being a 
delegate for more than three years in any 
term of six years; nor shall any person, being 
a delegate, be capable of holding any office 
under the United States for which he, or 
another for his benefit, receives any salary, 
fees, or emolument of any kind. Each State 
shall maintain its own delegates in any 
meeting of the States and while they act as 
members of the Committee of the States. In 
determining questions in the United States 
in Congress assembled, each State shall have 

[12] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

one vote. Freedom of speech and debate 
in Congress shall not be impeached or ques- 
tioned in any court or place out of Congress; 
and the members of Congress shall be pro- 
tected in their persons from arrests and im- 
prisonment during the time of their going to 
and from, and attendance on, Congress, ex- 
cept for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. 

Art. VI. — No State, without the consent 
of the United States, in Congress assembled, 
shall send any embassy to, or receive any 
embassy from, or enter into any conference, 
agreement, alliance, or treaty with any king, 
prince, or state ; nor shall any person holding 
any office of profit or trust under the United 
States, or any of them, accept of any present, 
emolument, office, or title of any kind what- 
ever from any king, prince, or foreign state; 
nor shall the United States, in Congress as- 
sembled, or any of them, grant any title of 
nobility. 

No two or more States shall enter into any 
treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever 
between them, without the consent of the 
United States, in Congress assembled, speci- 
fying accurately the purposes for which the 
same is to be entered into, and how long it 
shall continue. 

[13] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

No State shall lay any imposts or duties 
which may interfere with any stipulations in 
treaties entered into by the United States, 
in Congress assembled, with any king, prince, 
or state, in pursuance of any treaties already 
proposed by Congress to the courts of 
France and Spain. 

No vessel of war shall be kept up in time 
of peace by any State, except such number 
only as shall be deemed necessary by the 
United States, in Congress assembled, for the 
defense of such State or its trade, nor shall 
any body of forces be kept up by any State 
in time of peace, except such number only 
as, in the judgment of the United States, 
in Congress assembled, shall be deemed re- 
quisite to garrison the forts necessary for the 
defense of such State; but every state shall 
always keep up a well-regulated and disci- 
plined militia, sufficiently armed and ac- 
coutred, and shall provide and constantly 
have ready for use in public stores a due 
number of field-pieces and tents, and a proper 
quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp 
equipage. 

No State shall engage in any war without 
the consent of the United States, in Congress 
assembled, unless such State be actually in- 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

vaded by enemies, or shall have received 
certain advice of a resolution being formed 
by some nation of Indians to invade such 
State, and the danger is so imminent as not 
to admit of a delay till the United States, 
in Congress assembled, can be consulted; nor 
shall any State grant commissions to any 
ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque 
or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of 
war by the United States, in Congress as- 
sembled, and then only against the kingdom 
or state, and the subjects thereof, against 
which war has been so declared, and under 
such regulations as shall be established by 
the United States, in Congress assembled, 
unless such State be infested by pirates, in 
which case vessels of w^ar may be fitted out 
for that occasion, and kept so long as the 
danger shall continue, or until the United 
States, in Congress assembled, shall deter- 
mine otherwise. 

Art. VII. — When land forces are raised 
by any State for the common defense, all 
officers of or under the rank of Colonel 
shall be appointed by the Legislature of each 
State respectively by whom such forces shall 
be raised, or in such manner as such State 
shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled 

[15] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

up by the State which first made the appoint- 
ment. 

Art. VIII. — All charges of war, and all 
other expenses that shall be incurred for the 
common defense, or general welfare, and 
allowed by the United States, in Congress 
assembled, shall be defrayed out of a 
common treasury, which shall be supplied 
by the several States in proportion to the 
value of all land within each State, granted 
to, or surveyed for, any person, as such land 
and the buildings and improvements thereon 
shall be estimated, according to such mode 
as the United States, in Congress assembled, 
shall, from time to time, direct and appoint. 
The taxes for paying that proportion shall 
be laid and levied by the authority and direc- 
tion of the Legislatures of the several States, 
within the time agreed upon by the United 
States, in Congress assembled. 

Art. IX. — The United States, in Congress 
assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive 
right and power of determining on peace 
and war, except in the cases mentioned in 
the sixth Article; of sending and receiving 
ambassadors; entering into treaties, and 
alliances, provided that no treaty of com- 
merce shall be made, whereby the legislative 

[i6] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

power of the respective States shall be 
restrained from imposing such imposts and 
duties on foreigners as their own people are 
subjected to, or from prohibiting the expor- 
tation or importation of any species of goods 
or commodities whatever; of establishing 
rules for deciding, in all cases, what captures 
on land and water shall be legal, and in what 
manner prizes taken by land or naval forces 
in the service of the United States shall be 
divided or appropriated ; of granting letters 
of marque and reprisal in times of peace; 
appointing courts for the trial of piracies and 
felonies committed on the high seas ; and es- 
tablishing courts for receiving and determin- 
ing finally appeals in all cases of captures; 
provided that no member of Congress shall 
be appointed a judge of any of the said courts. 
The United States, in Congress assembled, 
shall also be the last resort on appeal in all 
disputes and differences now subsisting, or 
that hereafter may arise between two or 
more States concerning boundary, jurisdic- 
tion, or any other cause whatever; which 
authority shall always be exercised in the 
manner following : Whenever the legislative 
or executive authority, or lawful agent of any 
State in controversy with another, shall 

[17] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

present a petition to Congress, stating the 
matter in question, and praying for a hearing, 
notice thereof shall be given by order of 
Congress to the legislative or executive 
authority of the other State in controversy, 
and a day assigned for the appearance of the 
parties by their lawful agents, who shall 
then be directed to appoint, by joint consent, 
commissioners or judges to constitute a 
court for hearing and determining the matter 
in question; but if they cannot agree. Con- 
gress shall name three persons out of each of 
the United States, and from the list of such 
persons each party shall alternately strike 
out one, the petitioners beginning, until the 
number shall be reduced to thirteen; and 
from that number not less than seven nor 
more than nine names, as Congress shall 
direct, shall, in the presence of Congress, be 
drawn out by lot ; and the persons whose 
names shall be so drawn, or any five of them, 
shall be commissioners or judges, to hear 
and finally determine the controversy, so 
always as a major part of the judges who 
shall hear the cause shall agree in the deter- 
mination ; and if either party shall neglect to 
attend at the day appointed, without showing 
reasons which Congress shall judge sufii- 

[i8] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

cient, or being present, shall refuse to strike, 
the Congress shall proceed to nominate 
three persons out of each State, and the 
secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf of 
such party absent or refusing; and the judg- 
ment and sentence of the court, to be 
appointed in the manner before prescribed, 
shall be final and conclusive; and if any of 
the parties shall refuse to submit to the 
authority of such court, or to appear or de- 
fend their claim or cause, the court shall 
nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence 
or judgment, which shall in like manner be 
final and decisive; the judgment or sentence 
and other proceedings being in either case 
transmitted to Congress, and lodged among 
the acts of Congress for the security of the 
parties concerned; provided, that every com- 
missioner, before he sits in judgment, shall 
take an oath, to be administered by one of 
the judges of the supreme or superior court 
of the State where the cause shall be tried, 
*'well and truly to hear and determine the 
matter in question, according to the best of 
his judgment, without favor, affection, or 
hope of reward." Provided, also, that no 
State shall be deprived of territory for the 
benefit of the United States. 

[19] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

All controversies concerning the private 
right of soil claimed under different grants 
of two or more States, whose jurisdictions, 
as they may respect such lands, and the 
States which passed such grants are adjusted, 
the. said grants or either of them being 
at the same time claimed to have originated 
antecedent to such settlement of juris- 
diction, shall, on the petition of either party 
to the Congress of the United States, be 
finally determined, as near as may be, in the 
same manner as is before prescribed for de- 
ciding disputes respecting territorial juris- 
diction between different States. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, 
shall also have the sole and exclusive right 
and power of regulating the alloy and value 
of coin struck by their own authority, or by 
that of the respective States; fixing the stand- 
ard of weights and measures throughout 
the United States; regulating the trade and 
managing all affairs with the Indians, not 
members of any of the States; provided that 
the legislative right of any State, within its 
own limits, be not infringed or violated; 
establishing and regulating post-offices from 
one State to another, throughout all the 
United States, and exacting such postage on 

[20] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

the papers passing through the same as may 
be requisite to defray the expenses of the 
said office ; appointing all officers of the land 
forces in the service of the United States, 
excepting regimental officers; appointing all 
the officers of the naval forces, and commis- 
sioning all officers whatever in the service of 
the United States; making rules for the 
government and regulation of the said land 
and naval forces, and directing their opera- 
tions. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, 
shall have authority to appoint a committee, 
to sit in the recess of Congress, to be de- 
nominated "A Committee of the States," and 
to consist of one delegate from each State, 
and to appoint such other committees and 
civil officers as may be necessary for manag- 
ing the general affairs of the United States 
under their direction; to appoint one of their 
number to preside; provided that no person 
be allowed to serve in the office of president 
more than one year in any term of three 
years; to ascertain the necessary sums of 
money to be raised for the service of the 
United States, and to appropriate and apply 
the same for defraying the public expenses; 
to borrow money or emit bills on the credit 

[21] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of the United States, transmitting every half 
year to the respective States an account of the 
sums of money so borrowed or emitted; to 
build and equip a navy; to agree upon the 
number of land forces, and to make requisi- 
tions from each State for its quota, in pro- 
portion to the number of white inhabitants in 
such State, which requisition shall be bind- 
ing ; and thereupon the Legislature of each 
State shall appoint the regimental officers, 
raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip 
them in a soldier-like manner, at the expense 
of the United States; and the officers and 
men so clothed, armed, and equipped shall 
march to the place appointed, and within the 
time agreed on .by the United States, in 
Congress assembled; but if the United 
States, in Congress assembled, shall, on con- 
sideration of circumstances, judge proper 
that any State should not raise men, or 
should raise a smaller number than its 
quota, and that any other State should raise 
a greater number of men than the quota 
thereof, such extra number shall be raised, 
officered, clothed, armed, and equipped in 
the same manner as the quota of such 
State, unless the Legislature of such State 
shall judge that such extra number can not 

[22] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

be safely spared out of the same, in which 
case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and 
equip as many of such extra number as they 
judge can be safely spared, and the officers 
and men so clothed, armed, and equipped 
shall march to the place appointed, and 
within the time agreed on by the United 
States, in Congress assembled. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, 
shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters 
of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor 
enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin 
money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor 
ascertain the sums and expenses necessary 
for the defense and welfare of the United 
States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor 
borrow money on the credit of the United 
States, nor appropriate money, nor agree 
upon the number of vessels of war to be 
built or purchased, or the number of land or 
sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a com- 
mander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless 
nine States assent to the same, nor shall 
a question on any other point, except 
for adjourning from day to day, be de- 
termined, unless by the votes of a major- 
ity of the United States, in Congress as- 
sembled. 

[23] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

The Congress of the United States shall 
have power to adjourn to any time within 
the year, and to any place within the United 
States, so that no period of adjournment be 
for a longer duration than the space of six 
months, and shall publish the journal of their 
proceedings monthly, except such parts 
thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or mili- 
tary operations as in their judgment require 
secresy; and the yeas and nays of the dele- 
gates of each State, on any question, shall be 
entered on the journal when it is desired by 
any delegate; and the delegates of a State, or 
any of them, at his or their request, shall 
be furnished with a transcript of the said 
journal except such parts as are above ex- 
cepted, to lay before the Legislatures of the 
several States. 

Art. X. — The Committee of the States, 
or any nine of them, shall be authorized to 
execute, in the recess of Congress, such of 
the powers of Congress as the United States, 
in Congress assembled, by the consent of 
nine States, shall, from time to time, think 
expedient to vest them with; provided that 
no power be delegated to the said Committee, 
for the exercise of which, by the Articles of 
Confederation, the voice of nine States in the 

[24] 



THE AMER ICAN IDEA 

Congress of the United States assembled is 
requisite. 

Art. XI. — Canada, acceding to this Con- 
federation, and joining in the measures of 
the United States, shall be admitted into, 
and entitled to all the advantag^es of this 
Union; but no other colony shall be admitted 
into the same, unless such admission be 
agreed to by nine States. 

Art. XII. — All bills of credit emitted, 
moneys borrowed, and debts contracted by 
or under the authority of Congress, before 
the assembling of the United States, in pur- 
suance of the present Confederation, shall be 
deemed and considered as a chars^e aofainst 
the United States, for payment and satisfac- 
tion whereof the said United States and the 
public faith are hereby solemnly pledged. 

Art. XIII. — Every State shall abide by 
the determinations of the United States, in 
Congress assembled, on all questions which by 
this Confederation are submitted to them. 
And the Articles of this Confederation shall 
be inviolably observed by every State, and the 
Union shall be perpetual ; nor shall any alter- 
ation at any time hereafter be made in any 
of them, unless such alteration be agreed to 
in a Congress of the United States, and be 



THE AMERICAN I D E yl 



afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of 
every State. 

And whereas it hath pleased the great 
Governor of the world to incline the hearts 
of the Legislatures we respectively represent 
in Congress to approve of, and to authorize us 
to ratify, the said Articles of Confederation 
and perpetual Union, know ye, that we, the 
undersigned delegates, by virtue of the pow- 
er and authority to us given for that purpose, 
do, by these presents, in the name and in be- 
half of our respective constituents, fully and 
entirely ratify and confirm each and every of 
the said Articles of Confederation and per- 
petual Union, and all and singular the 
matters and things therein contained. And 
we do further solemnly plight and engage 
the faith of our respective constituents, that 
they shall abide by the determinations of the 
United States, in Congress assembled, on all 
questions which by the said Confederation 
are submitted to them ; and that the Articles 
thereof shall be inviolably observed by the 
States we respectively represent, and that 
the Union shall be perpetual. 

In witness whereof we have hereunto set 
our hands in Congress, Done at Pbila- 



THE AM ERICAN IDEA 

delphia in the State of Pennsylvania 
the ninth day of July in the year of our 
Lord one thousand seven hundred and 
seventy-eight, and in the third year of 
the independence of America. 

On the part & behalf of the State of New Hamp- 
shire. 
JosiAH Bartlett, JohnWentworth, Junr. 

August 8, 1778. 

On the part and behalf of the State of Massa- 
chusetts Bay. 
John Hancock, Francis Dana, 

Samuel Adams, James Lovell, 

Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Holten. 

On the part and behalf of the State of Rhode 

Island and Providence Plantations. 
William Ellery, John Collins. 

Henry Marchant, 

On the part and behalf of the State of Co?tnecticut. 
Roger Sherman, Titus Hosmer, 

Samuel Huntington, Andrew Adams. 
Oliver Wolcott, 

On the part and behalf of the State of New York. 
Jas. Duane, Wm. Duer, 

Fra. Lewis, Gouv. Morris. 

On the part and in behalf of the State of New Jer- 
sey^ Novr. 26, lyyS. 
Jno. Witherspoon, Nathl. Scudder. 

[27] 



THE AMERICAN 'IDEA 

On the part and behalf of the State of Pe?insyl- 

vania. 
ROBT. Morris, William Clingan, 

Daniel Roberdeau, Joseph Reed, 
JONA. Bayard Smith, 22d July, 1778. 

On the part & behalf of the State of Delaware. 
Tho. M'Kean, John Dickinson, 

Feby. 12, 1779, May 5th, 1779, 

Nicholas Van Dyke. 

07t the part and behalf of the State of Maryland. 
John Hanson, Daniel Carroll, 

March i, 1781. Mar. i, 1781. 

On the part and behalf of the State of Virginia. 
Richard Henry Lee, Jno. Harvie, 
John Banister, Francis Lightfoot Lee. 
Thomas Adams, 

On the part and behalf of the State of No. Carolina. 
John Penn, Jno. Williams. 

July 2ist, 1778, 
Corns. Harnett, 

On the part & behalf of the State of South 

Carolina. 

Henry Laurens, Richd. Hutson, 

Wm. Henry Drayton, Thos.Hayward, Junr. 

Jno. Mathews, 

On the part & behalf of the State of Georgia. 
Jno. Walton, Edwd. Langworthy. 

24th July, 1778, 
Edwd. Telfair, 

[28] 




The Constitution 
of the United States 

E, the people of the United States, 
in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common 
defense, promote the general welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 
and our posterity, do ordain and establish 
this Constitution for the United States of 
America. 

ARTICLE I. 

SECTION I. 

All legislative powers herein granted shall 
be vested in a Congress of the United States, 
which shall consist of a Senate and House 
of Representatives. 

SECTION II. 

The House of Representatives shall be 
composed of members chosen every second 
year by the people of the several States, and 
the electors in each State shall have the 

[29] 



THE AMERICA N IDEA 

qualifications requisite for electors of the 
most numerous branch of the State legisla- 
ture. 

No person shall be a Representative who 
shall not have attained the age of twenty-five 
years, and been seven years a citizen of the 
United States, and who shall not, when 
elected, be an inhabitant of that State in 
which he shall be chosen. 

Representatives and direct taxes shall be 
apportioned among the several States which 
may be included within this Union, accord- 
ing to their respective numbers, which shall 
be determined by adding to the whole num- 
ber of free persons, including those bound 
to service for a term of years, and excluding 
Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other 
persons. The actual enumeration shall be 
made within three years after the first meet- 
ing of the Congress of the United States, 
and within every subsequent term of ten 
years, in such manner as they shall by law 
direct. The number of Representatives 
shall not exceed one for every thirty thou- 
sand, but each State shall have at least one 
Representative ; and until such enumeration 
shall be made, the State of New Hampshire 
shall be entitled to choose three, Massachu- 

[30] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

setts eight, Rhode Isla7id mid Providence 
Plantations one, Connecticut five. New York 
six. New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, 
Delaware one, Maryland six, Virgi7iia ten, 
North Carolina five, Sotith Carolina ^n^, and 
Georgia three. 

When vacancies happen in the representa- 
tion from any State, the executive authority 
thereof shall issue writs of election to fill 
such vacancies. 

The House of Representatives shall choose 
their Speaker and other officers, and shall 
have the sole power of impeachment. 

SECTION III. 

The Senate of the United States shall be 
composed of two Senators from each State, 
chosen by the legislature thereof, for six 
years ; and each Senator shall have one vote. 

Immediately after they shall be assembled 
in consequence of the first election, they 
shall be divided as equally as may be into 
three classes. The seats of the Senators of 
the first class shall be vacated at the expi- 
ration of the second year ; of the second 
class, at the expiration of the fourth year, 
and of the third class, at the expiration of 
the sixth year, so that one third may be 

[31] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

chosen every second year ; and if vacancies 
happen by resignation or otherwise during 
the recess of the legislature of any State, the 
executive thereof may make temporary ap- 
pointments until the next meeting of the leg- 
islature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 

No person shall be a Senator who shall 
not have attained to the age of thirty years, 
and been nine years a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be 
an inhabitant of that State for which he shall 
be chosen. 

The Vice-President of the United States 
shall be President of the Senate, but shall 
have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

The Senate shall choose their other offi- 
cers, and also a President pro tempore in the 
absence of the Vice-President, or when he 
shall exercise the office of President of the 
United States. 

The Senate shall have the sole power to 
try all impeachments. When sitting for that 
purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. 
When the President of the United States is 
tried, the Chief Justice shall preside : and no 
person shall be convicted without the con- 
currence of two thirds of the members pres- 
ent 

[32] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall 
not extend further than to removal from 
office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy 
any office of honor, trust, or profit under the 
United States ; but the party convicted shall, 
nevertheless, be liable and subject to indict- 
ment, trial, judgment, and punishment, ac- 
cording to law. 

SECTION IV. 

The times, places, and manner of holding 
elections for Senators and Representatives 
shall be prescribed in each State by the 
legislature thereof ; but the Congress may at 
any time by law make or alter such regula- 
tions, except as to the places of choosing 
Senators. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once 
in every year, and such meeting shall be on 
the first Monday in December, unless they 
shall by law appoint a different day. 

SECTION V. 

Each house shall be the judge of the elec- 
tions, returns, and qualifications of its own 
members, and a majority of each shall con- 
stitute a quorum to do business ; but a 
smaller number may adjourn from day to 

[33] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

day, and may be authorized to compel the 
attendance of absent members, in such man- 
ner, and under such penalties, as each house 
may provide. 

Each house may determine the rules of its 
proceedings, punish its members for disor- 
derly behavior, and with the concurrence of 
two thirds, expel a member. 

Each house shall keep a journal of its pro- 
ceedings, and from time to time publish the 
same, excepting such parts as may in their 
judgment require secrecy, and the yeas and 
nays of the members of either house on any 
question shall, at the desire of one fifth of 
those present, be entered on the journal. 

Neither house, during the session of Con- 
gress, shall, without the consent of the other, 
adjourn for more than three days, nor to any 
other place than that in which the two 
houses shall be sitting. 

SECTION VI. 

The Senators and Representatives shall 
receive a compensation for their services, to 
be ascertained by law and paid out of the 
Treasury of the United States. They shall, 
in all cases except treason, felony, and breach 
of the peace, be privileged from arrest dur- 

[34] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ing their attendance at the session of their 
respective houses, and in going to and re- 
turning from the same ; and for any speech 
or debate in either house they shall not be 
questioned in any other place. 

No Senator or Representative shall, dur- 
ing the time for which he was elected, be ap- 
pointed to any civil office under the author- 
ity of the United States, which shall have 
been created, or the emoluments whereof 
shall have been increased during such time ; 
and no person holding any office under the 
United States shall be a member of either 
house during his continuance in office. 

SECTION VII. 

All bills for raising revenue shall originate 
in the House of Representatives ; but the 
Senate may propose or concur with amend- 
ments as on other bills. 

Every bill which shall have passed the 
House of Representatives and the Senate 
shall, before it become a law, be presented to 
the President of the United States ; if he 
approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall 
return it, with his objections, to that house 
in which it shall have originated, who shall 
enter the objections at large on their journal 

[35] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

and proceed to reconsider it. If after such 
reconsideration two thirds of that house shall 
agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, to- 
gether with the objections, to the other 
house, by which it shall likewise be recon- 
sidered, and if approved by two thirds of that 
house it shall become a law. But in all such 
cases the votes of both houses shall be deter- 
mined by yeas and nays, and the names of 
the persons voting for and against the bill 
shall be entered on the journal of each house 
respectively. If any bill shall not be re- 
turned by the President within ten days 
(Sundays excepted) after it shall have been 
presented to him, the same shall be a law, 
in like manner as if he had signed it, un- 
less the Congress by their adjournment pre- 
vent its return, in which case it shall not be 
a law. 

Every order, resolution, or vote to which 
the concurrence of the Senate and House of 
Representatives may be necessary (except on 
a question of adjournment) shall be presented 
to the President of the United States; and 
before the same shall take effect, shall be ap- 
proved by him, or, being disapproved by him, 
shall be repassed by two thirds of the Sen- 
ate and House of Representatives, accord- 

[36] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ing to the rules and limitations prescribed 
in the case of 'a bill. 

SECTION VIII. 

The Congress shall have power to lay and 
collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to 
pay the debts and provide for the common 
defense and general welfare of the United 
States ; but all duties, imposts, and excises 
shall be uniform throughout the United 
States; 

To borrow money on the credit of the 
United States ; 

To regulate commerce with foreign na- 
tions and among the several States, and with 
the Indian tribes ; 

To establish an uniform rule of naturaliza- 
tion, and uniform laws on the subject of 
bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, 
and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of 
weights and measures ; 

To provide for the punishment of counter- 
feiting the securities and current coin of the 
United States; 

To establish post-offices and post-roads ; 

To promote the progress of science and 
useful arts by securing for limited times to 

[37] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

authors and inventors the exclusive right to 
their respective writings and discoveries ; 

To constitute tribunals inferior to the 
Supreme Court ; 

To define and punish piracies and felonies 
committed on the high seas and offenses 
against the law of nations ; 

To declare war, grant letters of marque 
and reprisal, and make rules concerning cap- 
tures on land and water ; 

To raise and support armies, but no appro- 
priation of money to that use shall be for a 
longer term than two years ; 

To provide and maintain a navy; 

To make rules for the government and 
regulation of the land and naval forces ; 

To provide for calling forth the militia to 
execute the laws of the Union, suppress in- 
surrections, and repel invasions ; 

To provide for organizing, arming, and 
disciplining the militia, and for governing 
such part of them as may be employed in 
the service of the United States, reserving 
to the States respectively the appointment 
of the ofiicers, and the authority of training 
the militia according to the discipline pre- 
scribed by Congress ; 

To exercise exclusive legislation in all 

[38] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

cases whatsoever over such district (not ex- 
ceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession 
of particular States and the acceptance of 
Congress, become the seat of the Govern- 
ment of the United States, and to exercise 
like authority over all places purchased by 
the consent of the legislature of the State in 
which the same shall be, for the erection of 
forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and 
other needful buildings ; and 

To make all laws which shall be necessary 
and proper for carrying into execution the 
foregoing powers, and all other powers vested 
by this Constitution in the Government of 
the United States, or in any department or 
officer thereof. 

SECTION IX. 

The migration or importation of such per- 
sons as any of the States now existing shall 
think proper to admit shall not be prohibited 
by the Congress prior to the year one thou- 
sand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or 
duty may be imposed on such importation, 
not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
shall not be suspended, unless when in cases 
of rebellion or invasion the public safety may 
require it. 

[39] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

No bill of attainder or ex post facto law 
shall be passed. 

No capitation or other direct tax shall 
be laid, unless in proportion to the census 
or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be 
taken. 

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles 
exported from any State. 

No preference shall be given by any regu- 
lation of commerce or revenue to the ports 
of one State over those of another ; nor shall 
vessels bound to or from one State be obliged 
to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 

No money shall be drawn from the Treas- 
ury but in consequence of appropriations 
made by law ; and a regular statement and 
account of the receipts and expenditures of 
all public money shall be published from 
time to time. 

No title of nobility shall be granted by the 
United States; and no person holding any 
office of profit or trust under them shall, 
without the consent of the Congress, accept 
of any present, emolument,- office, or title, of 
any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or 
foreign State. 

SECTION X. 

No State shall enter into any treaty, alli- 

[40] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ance, or confederation ; grant letters of 
marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills 
of credit ; make anything but gold and silver 
coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any 
bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law im- 
pairing the obligation of contracts, or grant 
any title of nobility. 

No State shall, without the consent of 
Congress, lay any imposts or duties on im- 
ports or exports, except what may be abso- 
lutely necessary for executing its inspection 
laws ; and the net produce of all duties and 
imposts, laid by any State on imports or ex- 
ports, shall be for the use of the Treasury of 
the United States ; and all such laws shall be 
subject to the revision and control of the 
Congress. 

No State shall, without the consent of 
Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep 
troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter 
into any agreement or compact with another 
State or with a foreign power, or engage in 
war, unless actually invaded or in such immi- 
nent danger as will not admit of delay. 



[41] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 
ARTICLE II. 

SECTION I. 

The executive power shall be vested in a 
President of the United States of America. 
He shall hold his office during the term of 
four years, and together with the Vice-Presi- 
dent, chosen for the same term, be elected as 
follows : 

Each State shall appoint, in such manner 
as the legislature thereof may direct, a num- 
ber of electors, equal to the whole number 
of Senators and Representatives to which 
the State may be entitled in the Congress; 
but no Senator or Representative, or person 
holding an office of trust or profit under the 
United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

[The electors shall meet in their respec- 
tive States and vote by ballot for two per- 
sons, of whom one at least shall not be an 
inhabitant of the same State with themselves. 
And they shall make a list of all the persons 
voted for, and of the number of votes for 
each ; which list they shall sign and certify, 
and transmit sealed to the seat of govern- 
ment of the United States, directed to the 
President of the Senate. The President of 
the Senate shall, in the presence of the Sen- 

[42] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ate and House of Representatives, open all 
the certificates, and the votes shall then be 
counted. The person having the greatest 
number of votes shall be the President, if 
such number be a majority of the whole 
number of electors appointed ; and if there 
be more than one who have such majority, 
and have an equal number of votes, then the 
House of Representatives shall immediately 
choose by ballot one of them for President ; 
and if no person have a majority, then from 
the five highest on the list the said House 
shall in like manner choose the President. 
But in choosing the President the votes shall 
be taken by States, the representation from 
each State having one vote ; a quorum for 
this purpose shall consist of a member or 
members from two thirds of the States, and 
a majority of all the States shall be necessary 
to a choice. In every case, after the choice 
of the President, the person having the 
greatest number of votes of the electors shall 
be the Vice-President. But if there should 
remain two or more who have equal votes, 
the Senate shall choose from them by ballot 
the Vice-President.]* 

*This clause of the Constitution has been amended. See 
twelfth article of the amendments. 

[43] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

The Congress may determine the time of 
choosing the electors and the day on which 
they shall give their votes, which day shall 
be the same throughout the United States. 

No person except a natural-born citizen, or 
a citizen of the United States at the time of 
the adoption of this Constitution, shall be 
eligible to the office of President ; neither 
shall any person be eligible to that office who 
shall not have attained to the age of thirty- 
five years, and been fourteen years a resident 
within the United States. 

In case of the removal of the President 
from office, or of his death, resignation, or 
inability to discharge the powers and duties 
of the said office, the same shall devolve on 
the Vice-President, and the Congress may 
by law provide for the case of removal, death, 
resignation, or inability, both of the Presi- 
dent and Vice-President, declaring what offi- 
cer shall then act as President, and such 
officer shall act accordingly until the dis- 
ability be removed or a President shall be 
elected. 

The President shall, at stated times, re- 
ceive for his services a compensation, which 
shall neither be increased nor diminished 
during the period for which he may have 

[44] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

been elected, and he shall not receive within 
that period any other emolument from the 
United States or any of them. 

Before he enter on the execution of his 
ofHce he shall take the following oath or 
affirmation : 

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will 
faithfully execute the office of President of 
the United States, and will to the best of my 
ability preserve, protect, and defend the 
Constitution of the United States." 

SECTION II. 

The President shall be Commander-in- 
chief of the Army and Navy of the United 
States, and of the militia of the several 
States when called into the actual service of 
the United States ; he may require the opin- 
ion, in writing, of the principal officer in each 
of the executive departments, upon any sub- 
ject relating to the duties of their respective 
offices, and he shall have power to grant 
reprieves and pardons for offenses against 
the United States, except in cases of im- 
peachment. 

He shall have power, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, to make 
treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators 

[45] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

present concur ; and he shall nominate, and, 
by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other pub- 
lic ministers and consuls, judges of the Su- 
preme Court, and all other officers of the 
United States, whose appointments are not 
herein otherwise provided for, and which 
shall be established by law; but the Con- 
gress may by law vest the appointment of 
such inferior officers, as they think proper, in 
the President alone, in the courts of law, or 
in the heads of departments. 

The President shall have power to fill up 
all vacancies that may happen during the 
recess of the Senate, by granting commis- 
sions which shall expire at the end of their 
next session. 

SECTION III. 

He shall from time to time give to the 
Congress information of the state of the 
Union, and recommend to their considera- 
tion such measures as he shall judge neces- 
sary and expedient ; he may, on extraordi- 
nary occasions, convene both houses, or 
either of them, and in case of disagreement 
between them with respect to the time of 
adjournment, he may adjourn them to such 
time as he shall think proper ; he shall re- 

[46] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ceive ambassadors and other public minis- 
ters; he shall take care that the laws be 
faithfully executed, and shall commission all 
the officers of the United States. 

SECTION IV. 

The President, Vice-President, and all 
civil officers of the United States shall be 
removed from office on impeachment for 
and conviction of treason, bribery, or other 
high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

SECTION I. 

The judicial power of the United States 
shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and 
in such inferior courts as the Congress may 
from time to time ordain and establish. The 
judges, both of the supreme and inferior 
courts, shall hold their offices during good 
behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive 
for their services a compensation which shall 
not be diminished during their continuance 
in office. 

SECTION II. 

The judicial power shall extend to all 
cases, in law and equity, arising under this 

[47] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

Constitution, the laws of the United States, 
and treaties made, or which shall be made, 
under their authority ; to all cases affecting- 
ambassadors, other public ministers, and con- 
suls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime 
jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the 
United States shall be a party; to contro- 
versies between two or more States ; between 
a State and citizens of another State ; be- 
tween citizens of different States ; between 
citizens of the same State claiming lands 
under grants of different States, and be- 
tween a State, or the citizens thereof, and 
foreign States, citizens, or subjects. 

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other 
public ministers and consuls, and those in 
which a State shall be a party, the Supreme 
Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all 
the other cases before mentioned the Su- 
preme Court shall have appellate jurisdic- 
tion, both as to law and fact, with such 
exceptions and under such regulations as 
the Congress shall make. 

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of 
impeachment, shall be by jury; and such 
trial shall be held in the State where the 
said crimes shall have been committed ; but 
when not committed within any State, the 

[48] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

trial shall be at such place or places as the 
Congress may by law have directed. 

SECTION III. 

Treason against the United States shall 
consist only in levying war against them, or 
in adhering to their enemies, giving them 
aid and comfort. No person shall be con- 
victed of treason unless on the testimony of 
two witnesses to the same overt act, or on 
confession in open court. 

The Congress shall have power to declare 
the punishment of treason, but no attainder 
of treason shall work corruption of blood or 
forfeiture except during the life of the person 
attainted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

SECTION I. 

Full faith and credit shall be given in each 
State to the public acts, records, and judicial 
proceedings of every other State. And the 
Congress may by general laws prescribe the 
manner in which such acts, records, and pro- 
ceedings shall be proved, and the effect 
thereof. 

SECTION II. 

The citizens of each State shall be en- 

[49] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

titled to all privileges and immunities of 
citizens in the several States. 

A person charged in any State with trea- 
son, felony, or other crime, who shall flee 
from justice, and be found in another State, 
shall, on demand of the executive authority 
of the State from which he fled, be delivered 
up, to be removed to the State having juris- 
diction of the crime. 

No person held to service or labor in one 
State, under the laws thereof, escaping into 
another, shall, in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such 
service or labor, but shall be delivered up on 
claim of the party to whom such service or 
labor may be due. 

SECTION III. 

New States may be admitted by the Con- 
gress into this Union ; but no new State 
shall be formed or erected within the juris- 
diction of any other State ; nor any State be 
formed by the junction of two or more 
States or parts of States, without the con- 
sent of the legislatures of the States con- 
cerned as well as of the Congress. 

The Congress shall have power to dispose 
of and make all needful rules and regula- 

[50] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

tions respecting the territory or other prop- 
erty belonging to the United States; and 
nothing in this Constitution shall be so con- 
strued as to prejudice any claims of the 
United States or of any particular State. 

SECTION IV. 

The United States shall guarantee to 
every State in this Union a republican form 
of government, and shall protect each of 
them against invasion, and on application of 
the legislature, or of the executive (when the 
legislature cannot be convened), against do- 
mestic violence. 

ARTICLE V. 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of 
both houses shall deem it necessary, shall 
propose amendments to this Constitution, 
or, on the application of the legislatures of 
two thirds of the several States, shall call a 
convention for proposing amendments, which 
in either case shall be valid to all intents and 
purposes as part of this Constitution, when 
ratified by the legislatures of three fourths 
of the several States, or by conventions in 
three fourths thereof, as the one or the other 
mode of ratification may be proposed by 

[51] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

the Congress, provided that no amendments 
which may be made prior to the year one 
thousand eight hundred and eight shall in 
any manner affect the first and fourth clauses 
in the ninth section of the first article ; and 
that no State, without its consent, shall be 
deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

All debts contracted and engagements 
entered into, before the adoption of this 
Constitution, shall be as valid against the 
United States under this Constitution as 
under the confederation. 

This Constitution, and the laws of the 
United States which shall be made in pur- 
suance thereof, and all treaties made, or 
which shall be made, under the authority of 
the United States, shall be the supreme law 
of the land ; and the judges in every State 
shall be bound thereby, anything in the Con- 
stitution or laws of any State to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 

The Senators and Representatives before 
mentioned, and the members of the several 
State legislatures, and all executive and judi- 
cial officers both of the United States and of 

[52] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

the several States, shall be bound by oath or 
affirmation to support this Constitution ; but 
no religious test shall ever be required as a 
qualification to any office or public trust 
under the United States. 



ARTICLE VII. 

The ratification of the conventions of nine 
States shall be sufficient for the establish- 
ment of this Constitution between the States 
so ratifying the same. 

Done in convention by the unanimous 
consent of the States present, the seven- 
teenth day of September, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand seven hundred 
and eighty-seven, and of the independ- 
ence of the United States of America 
the twelfth. In witness whereof, we 
have hereunto subscribed our names. 

George Washington, President, and Deputy 

from Virginia. 
New Hampshire — John Langdon, Nicholas 

Gilman. 
Massachusetts — Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus 

King. 

[53] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

Connecticut — William Samuel Johnson, 

Roger Sherman. 
New York — Alexander Hamilton. 
New Jersey — William Livingston, David 

Brearly, William Patterson, Jonathan 

Dayton. 
Pennsylvania — Benjamin Franklin, Thomas 

Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, 

Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared Ingersoll, 

James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris. 
Delaware — George Read, Gunning Bed- 
ford, Jr., John Dickinson, Richard Bas- 

sett, Jacob Broom. 
Maryland — James McHenry, Daniel of St. 

Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll. 
Virginia — John Blair, James Madison, Jr. 
North Carolina — William Blount, Richard 

Dobbs Spaight, Hugh Williamson. 
South Carolina — John Rutledge, Charles 

Cotesworth Pinckney, Charles Pinck- 

ney. Pierce Butler. 
Georgia — William Few, Abraham Baldwin. 

Attest: William Jackson, Secretary. 



[54] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



AMENDMENTS. 



ARTICLE I. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an 
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the 
free exercise thereof ; or abridging the free- 
dom of speech or of the press; or the right 
of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 
petition the government for a redress of 
grievances. 

ARTICLE II. 

A well-regulated militia being necessary to 
the security of a free State, the right of the 
people to keep and bear arms shall not be 
infringed. 

ARTICLE III. 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quar- 
tered in any house without the consent of 
the owner, nor in time of war, but in a man- 
ner to be prescribed by law. 

ARTICLE IV. 

The right of the people to be secure in 
their persons, houses, papers, and effects, 
against unreasonable searches and seizures, 
shall not be violated, and no warrants shall 
issue but upon probable cause, supported by 

[55] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

oath or affirmation, and particularly describ- 
ing the place to be searched, and the person 
or things to be seized. 

ARTICLE V. 

No person shall be held to answer for a 
capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless 
on a presentment or indictment of a grand 
jury, except in cases arising in the land or 
naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual 
service in time of war or public danger; nor 
shall any person be subject for the same 
offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or 
limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal 
case to be a witness against himself, nor be 
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without 
due process of law ; nor shall private prop- 
erty be taken for public use without just 
compensation. 

ARTICLE VI. 

In all criminal prosecutions the accused 
shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public 
trial, by an impartial jury of the State and 
district wherein the crime shall have been 
committed, which district shall have been 
previously ascertained by law, and to be in- 
formed of the nature and cause of the accu- 
sation; to be confronted with the witnesses 

[56] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

against him ; to have compulsory process for 
obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have 
the assistance of counsel for his defense. 

ARTICLE VII. 

In suits at common law, where the value 
in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, 
the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, 
and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise 
re-examined in any court of the United 
States, than according to the rules of the 
common law. 

ARTICLE VIII. 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor 
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unus- 
ual punishments inflicted. 

ARTICLE IX. 

The enumeration in the Constitution of 
certain rights shall not be construed to deny 
or disparage others retained by the people. 

ARTICLE X. 

The powers not delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by 
it to the States, are reserved to the States 
respectively or to the people. 

ARTICLE XI. 

The judicial power of the United States 

[57] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

shall not be construed to extend to any suit 
in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted 
against one of the United States by citizens 
of another State, or by citizens or subjects of 
any foreign State. 

ARTICLE XII. 

The electors shall meet in their respective 
States and vote by ballot for President and 
Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall 
not be an inhabitant of the same State with 
themselves ; they shall name in their ballots 
the person voted for as President, and in 
distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice- 
President, and they shall make distinct lists 
of all persons voted for as President and of 
all persons voted for as Vice-President, and 
of the number of votes for each; which lists 
they shall sign and certify, and transmit 
sealed to the seat of the government of the 
United States, directed to the President of 
the Senate. The President of the Senate 
shall, in the presence of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, open all the cer- 
tificates and the votes shall then be counted. 
The person having the greatest number of 
votes for President shall be the President, if 
such number be a majority of the whole 

[58] 



THE AM ER^TC AN ID EA 

number of electors appointed; and if no 
person have such majority, then from the 
persons having the highest numbers not ex- 
ceeding three on the list of those voted for 
as President, the House of Representatives 
shall choose immediately, by ballot, the Pres- 
ident. But in choosing the President the 
votes shall be taken by States, the represen- 
tation from each State having one vote ; a 
quorum for this purpose shall consist of a 
member or members from two thirds of the 
States, and a majority of all the States shall 
be necessary to a choice. And if the House 
of Representatives shall not choose a Presi- 
dent whenever the right of choice shall de- 
volve upon them, before the fourth day of 
March next following, then the Vice-Presi- 
dent shall act as President, as in the case of 
the death or other constitutional disability 
of the President. 

The person having the greatest number 
of votes as Vice-President shall be the Vice- 
President, if such number be a majority of 
the whole number of electors appointed; 
and if no person have a majority, then from 
the two highest numbers on the list the 
Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a 
quorum for the purpose shall consist of two 

[59] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

thirds of the whole number of Senators, and 
a majority of the whole number shall be 
necessary to a choice. But no person con- 
stitutionally ineligible to the office of Presi- 
dent shall be eligible to that of Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

ARTICLE XIII. 

Section i. Neither slavery nor involun- 
tary servitude, except as a punishment for 
crime whereof the party shall have been 
duly convicted, shall exist within the United 
States or any place subject to their jurisdic- 
tion. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to 
enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

ARTICLE XIV. 

Section i. All persons born or natural- 
ized in the United States, and subject to the 
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United 
States and of the State wherein they reside. 
No State shall make or enforce any law 
which shall abridge the privileges or immu- 
nities of citizens of the United States ; nor 
shall any State deprive any person of life, 
liberty, or property, without due process of 
law ; nor deny to any person within its 
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

[60] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

Section 2. Representatives shall be ap- 
portioned among the several States accord- 
ing to their respective numbers, counting the 
whole number of persons in each State, ex- 
cluding Indians not taxed. But when 'the 
right to vote at any election for the choice 
of electors for President and Vice-President 
of the United States, Representatives in 
Congress, the executive and judicial officers 
of a State, or the members of the legislature 
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabit- 
ants of such State, being twenty-one years 
of age, and citizens of the United States, or 
in any way abridged, except for participation 
in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of 
representation therein shall be reduced in 
the proportion which the number of such 
male citizens shall bear to the whole number 
of male citizens twenty-one years of age in 
such State. 

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator 
or Representative in Congress, or elector of 
President and Vice-President, or hold any 
office, civil or military, under the United 
States or under any State, who, having pre- 
viously taken an oath as a member of Con- 
gress, or as an officer of the United States, 
or as a member of any State legislature or 

[61] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

as an executive or judicial officer of any- 
State, to support the Constitution of the 
United States, shall have engaged in insur- 
rection or rebellion against the same, or 
given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. 
But Congress may, by a vote of two thirds 
of each house, remove such disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public 
debt of the United States, authorized bylaw, 
including debts incurred for payment of 
pensions and bounties for services in sup- 
pressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be 
questioned. But neither the United States 
nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or 
obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or 
rebellion against the United States, or any 
claim for the loss or emancipation of any 
slave; but all such debts, obligations, and 
claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section 5. The Congress shall have power 
to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the pro- 
visions of this article. 



ARTICLE XV. 

Section i. The rights of citizens of the 
United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or by any 

[62] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

State on account of race, color, or previous 
condition of servitude. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have 
power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

The Federal Convention which framed the Constitution met at 

Philadelphia in May, 1787, and completed its work September 
17. The number of delegates chosen to the convention was 
sixt)'-five; ten did not attend; sixteen decUned signing the Con- 
stitution, or left the convention before it was ready to be signed; 
thirty-nine signed. 

The States ratified the Constitution in the following order: 

Delaware, Dec, 7, 17S7 Mar^-land, April 28, 1788 

Pennsylvania, Dec. 12, 1787 South Carolina, May 23, 1788 

New Jersey, Dec. iS, 1787 New Hampshire, June 21, 1788 

Georgia, Jan, 2, 1788 Virginia, June 25, 1788 

Connecticut, Jan. 9, 1788 New York, July 26, 1788 

Massachusetts, Feb. 6, 1788 North Carolina, Nov. 21, 1789 
Rhode Island. May 29, 1790 

The first ten amendments were proposed in 1789. and declared 
adopted in 1791. 

The eleventh amendment was proposed in 1794, and declared 
adopted in 1798. 

The twelfth amendment was proposed in 1803, and declared 
adopted in 1804. 

The thirteenth amendment was proposed and adopted in 1865. 

The fourteenth amendment was proposed in 1866, and adopted 
in 1868. 

The fifteenth amendment was proposed in 1869, and adopted 
in 1870, 



[63] 



Washington's 
Inaugurals 




April so, lySg, 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House 
OF Representatives : 

MONG the vicissitudes incident to 
life, no event could have filled me 
with greater anxieties, than that of 
which the notification was transmitted by 
your order, and received on the 14th day 
of the present month. On the one hand, I 
was summoned by my country, whose voice 
I can never hear but with veneration and 
love, from a retreat which I had chosen with 
the fondest predilection, and, in my flatter- 
ing hopes, with an immutable decision, as 
the asylum of my declining years ; a retreat 
which was rendered every day more neces- 
sary as well as more dear to me, by the 
addition of habit to inclination, and of fre- 
quent interruptions in my health to the 
gradual waste committed on it by time. On 
the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty 

[64] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of the trust, to which the voice of my coun- 
try called me, being sufficient to awaken in 
the wisest and most experienced of her citi- 
zens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifica- 
tions, could not but overwhelm with despond- 
ence one, who, inheriting inferior endow- 
ments from nature, and unpracticed in the 
duties of civil administration, ought to be 
peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. 
In this conflict of emotions, all I dare aver 
is, that it has been my faithful study to col- 
lect my duty from a just appreciation of 
every circumstance by which it might be 
affected. All I dare hope is, that, if in 
executing this task, I have been too much 
swayed by a grateful remembrance of former 
instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to 
this transcendent proof of the confidence of 
my fellow-citizens; and have thence too little 
consulted my incapacity as well as disincli- 
nation for the weighty and untried cares be- 
fore me ; my error will be palliated by the 
motives which misled me, and its conse- 
quences be judged by my country with some 
share of the partiality in which they origi- 
nated. 

Such being the impressions under which 
I have, in obedience to the public summons, 

[65] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

repaired to the present station, it would be 
peculiarly improper to omit, in this first offi- 
cial act, my fervent supplications to that 
Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, 
who presides in the councils of nations, and 
whose providential aids can supply every 
human defect, that his benediction may con- 
secrate to the liberties and happiness of the 
people of the United States a government 
instituted by themselves for these essential 
purposes, and may enable every instrument 
employed in its administration to execute 
with success the functions allotted to his 
charge. In tendering this homage to the 
great Author of every public and private 
good, I assure myself that it expresses your 
sentiments not less than my own ; nor those 
of my fellow-citizens at large, less than either. 
No people can be bound to acknowledge and 
adore the invisible hand, which conducts the 
affairs of men, more than the people of the 
United States. Every step, by which they 
have advanced to the character of an inde- 
pendent nation, seems to have been distin- 
guished by some token of providential agency. 
And, in the important revolution just accom- 
plished in the system of their united govern- 
ment, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary 

[66] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

consent of so many distinct communities, 
from which the event has resulted, cannot 
be compared with the means by which most 
governments have been established, without 
some return of pious gratitude along wiih an 
humble anticipation of the future blessings 
which the past seems to presage. These re- 
flections, arising out of the present crisis, 
have forced themselves too strongly on my 
mind to be suppressed. You will join with 
me, I trust, in thinking that there are none, 
under the influence of which the proceedings 
of a new and free government can more aus- 
piciously commence. 

By the article establishing the executive 
department, it is made the duty of the Presi- 
dent " to recommend to your consideration 
such measures as he shall judge necessary 
and expedient." The circumstances, under 
which I now meet you, will acquit me from 
entering into that subject farther than to 
refer you to the great constitutional charter 
under which we are assembled ; and which, 
in defining your powers, designates the ob- 
jects to which your attention is to be given. 
It will be more consistent with those circum- 
stances, and far more congenial with the feel- 
ings which actuate me, to substitute, in place 

[67] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of a recommendation of particular measures, 
the tribute that is due to the talents, the rec- 
titude, and the patriotism, which adorn the 
characters selected to devise and adopt them. 
In these honorable qualifications I behold 
the surest pledges, that as, on one side, no 
local prejudices or attachments, no separate 
views or party animosities, will misdirect the 
comprehensive and equal eye, which ought 
to watch over this great assemblage of com- 
munities and interests; so, on another, that 
the foundations of our national policy will be 
laid in the pure and immutable principles of 
private morality, and the preeminence of a 
free government be exemplified by all the 
attributes, which can w^n the affections of 
its citizens, and command the respect of the 
world. 

I dwell on this prospect with every satis- 
faction, which an ardent love for my country 
can inspire ; since there is no truth more 
thoroughly established, than that there exists 
in the economy and course of nature an in- 
dissoluble union between virtue and happi- 
ness, between duty and advantage, between 
the genuine maxims of an honest and mag- 
nanimous policy, and the solid rewards of 
public prosperity and felicity; since we ought 

[68] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

to be no less persuaded that the propitious 
smiles of Heaven can never be expected on 
a nation that disresrards the eternal rules of 

o 

order and right, which Heaven itself has 
ordained ; and since the preservation of the 
sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the 
republican model of government, are justly 
considered as deeply, perhaps 2J$> finally staked 
on the experiment intrusted to the hands of 
the American people. 

Besides the ordinary objects submitted to 
your care, it will remain with your judgment 
to decide, how far an exercise of the occa- 
sional power delegated by the fifth article of 
the Constitution is rendered expedient at the 
present juncture by the nature of objections 
which have been urged against the system, 
or by the degree of inquietude which has 
given birth to them. Instead of undertaking 
particular recommendations on this subject, 
in which I could be guided by no lights de- 
rived from official opportunities, I shall again 
give way to my entire confidence in your 
discernment and pursuit of the public good; 
for I assure myself, that, whilst you carefully 
avoid every alteration, which might endanger 
the benefits of a united and effective govern- 
ment, or which ought to await the future 

[69] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

lessons of experience ; a reverence for the 
characteristic rights of freemen, and a regard 
for the public harmony, will sufficiently influ- 
ence your deliberations on the question, how 
far the former can be more impregnably for- 
tified, or the latter be safely and advantage- 
ously promoted. 

To the preceding observations I have one 
to add, which will be most properly addressed 
to the House of Representatives. It con- 
cerns myself, and will therefore be as brief 
as possible. When I was first honored with 
a call into the service of my country, then on 
the eve of an arduous struggle for its liber- 
ties, the light in which I contemplated my 
duty required, that I should renounce every 
pecuniary compensation. From this resolu- 
tion I have in no instance departed. And 
being still under the impressions which pro- 
duced it, I must decline as inapplicable to 
myself any share in the personal emoluments, 
which may be indispensably included in a 
permanent provision for the executive depart- 
ment ; and must accordingly pray, that the 
pecuniary estimates for the station in which 
I am placed may, during my continuance in 
it, be limited to such actual expenditures as 
the public good may be thought to require. 

[70] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

Having thus imparted to you my senti- 
ments, as they have been awakened by the 
occasion which brings us together, I shall 
take my present leave ; but not without re- 
sorting once more to the benign Parent of 
the human race, in humble supplication, 
that, since he has been pleased to favor the 
American people with opportunities for de- 
liberating in perfect tranquillity, and disposi- 
tions for deciding with unparalleled unanim- 
ity on a form of government for the security 
of their union and the advancement of their 
happiness; so his divine blessing may be 
equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, 
the temperate consultations, and the wise 
measures, on which the success of this gov- 
ernment must depend. 

December jd, //pj. 

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House 
OF Representatives, 

Since the commencement of the term, for 
which I have been again called into ofHce, 
no fit occasion has arisen for expressing to 
my fellow-citizens at large, the deep and 
respectful sense, which I feel, of the renewed 
testimony of public approbation. While, on 

[71] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

the one hand, it awakened my gratitude for 
all those instances of affectionate partiality, 
with which I have been honored by my 
country; on the other, it could not prevent 
an earnest wish for that retirement, from 
which no private consideration should ever 
have torn me. But influenced by the belief, 
that my conduct would be estimated accord- 
ing to its real motives, and that the people, 
and the authorities derived from them, would 
support exertions having nothing personal 
for their object, I have obeyed the suffrage, 
which commanded me to resume the execu- 
tive power ; and I humbly implore that Being, 
on whose will the fate of nations depends, to 
crown with success our mutual endeavours 
for the general happiness. 

As soon as the war in Europe had em- 
braced those powers, with whom the United 
States have the most extensive relations, 
there was reason to apprehend, that our in- 
tercourse with them might be interrupted, 
and our disposition for peace drawn into 
question, by the suspicions too often enter- 
tained by belligerent nations. It seemed, 
therefore, to be my duty to admonish our 
citizens of the consequences of a contraband 
trade, and of hostile acts to any of the par- 

[72] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ties ; and to obtain, by a declaration of the 
existing legal state of things, an easier admis- 
sion of our right to the immunities belong- 
ing to our situation. Under these impres- 
sions, the Proclamation, which will be laid 
before you, was issued. 

In this posture of affairs, both new and 
delicate, I resolved to adopt general rules, 
which should conform to the treaties and 
assert the privileges of the United States. 
These were reduced into a system, which will 
be communicated to you. Althous^h I have 
not thought myself at liberty to forbid the 
sale of the prizes, permitted by our treaty of 
commerce with France to be brought into 
our ports, I have not refused to cause them 
to be restored, when they were taken within 
the protection of our territory, or by vessels 
commissioned or equipped in a warlike form 
within the limits of the United States. 

It rests with the wisdom of Congress to 
correct, improve, or enforce this plan of pro- 
cedure ; and it will probably be found expe- 
dient to extend the legal code, and the juris- 
diction of the courts of the United States, to 
many cases, which, though dependent on 
principles already recognised, demand some 
further provisions. 

[73] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

Where individuals shall within the United 
States array themselves in hostility against 
any of the powers at war ; or enter upon 
military expeditions or enterprises within 
the jurisdiction of the United States ; or 
usurp and exercise judicial authority within 
the United States ; or where the penalties 
on violations of the law of nations may have 
been indistinctly marked, or are inadequate; 
these offenses cannot receive too early and 
close an attention, and require prompt and 
decisive remedies. 

Whatsoever those remedies may be, they 
will be well administered by the judiciary, 
who possess a long-established course of in- 
vestigation, effectual process, and officers 
in the habit of executing it. In like man- 
ner, as several of the courts have doubted^ 
under particular circumstances, their power 
to liberate the vessels of a nation at peace, 
and even of a citizen of the United States, 
although seized under a false color of being 
hostile property ; and have denied their power 
to liberate certain captures within the protec- 
tion of our territory ; it would seem proper 
to regulate their jurisdiction in these points. 
But if the executive is to be the resort in 
either of the two last-mentioned cases, it is 

[74] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

hoped, that he will be authorized by law to 
have facts ascertained by the courts, when, 
for his own information, he shall request it. 
I cannot recommend to your notice meas- 
ures for the fulfilment of our duties to the 
rest of the world, without again pressing upon 
you the necessity of placing ourselves in a 
condition of complete defence, and of exact- 
ing from tkem the fulfilment of their duties 
towards us. The United States ought not 
to indulge a persuasion, that, contrary to the 
order of human events, they will for ever keep 
at a distance those painful appeals to arms, 
with which the history of every other nation 
abounds. There is a rank due to the United 
States among nations, which will be withheld, 
if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of 
weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we 
must be able to repel it ; if we desire to se- 
cure peace, one of the most powerful instru- 
ments of our rising prosperity, it must be 
known, that we are at all times ready for 
war. 

The documents, which will be presented 
to you, will show the amount and kinds of 
arms and military stores now in our maga- 
zines and arsenals ; and yet an addition even 
to these supplies cannot with prudence be 

[75] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

neglected, as it would leave nothing to 
the uncertainty of procuring a warlike ap- 
paratus in the moment of public danger. 
Nor can such arrangements; with such 
objects, be exposed to the censure or jealousy 
of the warmest friends of republican govern- 
ment. They are incapable of abuse in the 
hands of the militia, who ought to possess a 
pride in being the depository of the force 
of the Republic, and may be trained to a 
degree of energy, equal to every military ex- 
igency of the United States. But it is an 
inquiry, which cannot be too solemnly pur- 
sued, whether the act " more effectually to 
provide for the national defence by establish- 
ing a uniform militia throughout the United 
States," has organized them so as to produce 
their full effect ; whether your own experi- 
ence in the several States has not detected 
some imperfections in the scheme ; and 
whether a material feature, in an improve- 
ment of it, ought not to be to afford an op- 
portunity for the study of those branches of 
the military art, which can scarcely ever be 
attained by practice alone. 

The connexion of the United States with 
Europe has become extremely interesting. 
The occurrences, which relate to it, and have 

[76] 



THE AM ERIC AN IDEA 

passed under the knowledge of the executive, 
will be exhihited to Copxgress in a subesquent 
communication. 

When we contemplate the war on our 
frontiers, it may be truly affirmed, that every 
reasonable effort has been made to adjust the 
causes of dissension with the Indians north 
of the Ohio. The instructions given to the 
commissioners evince a moderation and 
equity proceeding from a sincere love of 
peace, and a liberality having no restriction 
but the essential interests and dignity of the 
United States. The attempt, however, of 
an amicable negotiation having been frus- 
trated, the troops have marched to act of- 
fensively. Although the proposed treaty did 
not arrest the progress of military prepara- 
tion, it is doubtful hov/ far the advance of the 
season, before good faith justified active 
movements, may retard them, during the re- 
mainder of the year. From the papers and 
intelligence, which relate to this important 
subject, you will determine, whether the de- 
ficiency in the number of troops, granted by 
law, shall be compensated by succours of 
militia ; or additional encouragements shall 
be proposed to recruits. An anxiety has 
been also demonstrated by the executive for 

[77] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

peace with the Creeks and the Cherokees. 
The former have been relieved with corn and 
with clothing, and offensive measures against 
them prohibited, during the recess of Con- 
gress. To satisfy the complaints of the latter, 
prosecutions have been instituted for the 
violences committed upon them. But the 
papers, which will be delivered to you, dis- 
close the critical footing on which we stand 
in regard to both those tribes ; and it is with 
Congress to pronounce what shall be done. 
After they shall have provided for the 
present emergency, it will merit their most 
serious labors, to render tranquillity with the 
savages permanent by creating ties of inter- 
est. Next to a rigorous execution of justice 
on the violators of peace, the establishment 
of commerce with the Indian nations on be- 
half of the United States is most likely to 
conciliate their attachment. But it ought to 
be conducted without fraud, without extor- 
tion, with constant and plentiful supplies, 
with a ready market for the commodities of 
the Indians, and a stated price for what they 
give in payment, and receive in exchange. 
Individuals will not pursue such a traffic, 
unless they be allured by the hope of profit ; 
but it will be enough for the United States 

[78] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

to be reimbursed only. Should this recom- 
mendation accord with the opinion of Con- 
gress, they will recollect, that it cannot be 
accomplished by any means yet in the hands 
of the Executive. 



Gentlemen of the House of Representa- 
tives. 

The commissioners charged with the set- 
tlement of accounts between the United and 
individual States, concluded their important 
functions within the time limited by law ; and 
the balances, struck in their report, which 
will be laid before Congress, have been 
placed on the books of the treasury. 

On the first day of June last, an instal- 
ment of one million of florins became pay- 
able on the loans of the United States in 
Holland. This was adjusted by a prolonga- 
tion of the period of reimbursement, in the 
nature of a new loan, at interest at fwQ per 
cent for the term of ten years ; and the ex- 
penses of this operation were a commission 
of three per cent. 

The first instalment of the loan of two mil- 
lions of dollars from the bank of the United 
States has been paid, as was directed by law 

[79] 



THE AMERICAN I DEA 

For the second, it is necessary that provision 
should be made. 

No pecuniary consideration is more urgent 
than the regular redemption and discharge of 
the public debt ; on none can delay be more 
injurious, or an economy of time more valu- 
able. 

The productiveness of the public revenues 
hitherto has continued to equal the anticipa- 
tions which were formed of it; but it is not 
expected to prove commensurate with all the 
objects, which have been suggested. Some 
auxiliary provisions will, therefore, it is pre- 
sumed, be requisite; and it is hoped that these 
may be made, consistently with a due regard 
to the convenience of our citizens, who can- 
not but be sensible of the true wisdom of 
encountering a small present addition to their 
contributions, to obviate a future accumula- 
tion of burdens. 

But here I cannot forbear to recommend a 
repeal of the tax on the transportation of pub- 
lic prints. There is no resource so firm for 
the government of the United States, as the 
affections of the people, guided by an en- 
lightened policy ; and to this primary good, 
nothing can conduce more than a faithful 
representation of public proceedings, diffused 

[80] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

without restraint thoroughout the United 
States. 

An estimate of the appropriations neces- 
sary for the current service of the ensuing 
year, and a statement of a purchase of arms 
and military stores made during the recess, 
will be presented to Congress. 

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of 
Representatives : 
The several subjects, to which I have now 
referred, open a wide range to your delibera- 
tions, and involve some of the choicest inter- 
ests of our common country. Permit me to 
bring to your remembrance the magnitude 
of your task. Without an unprejudiced 
coolness, the welfare of the government may 
be hazarded ; without harmony, as far as 
consists with freedom of sentiment, its dignity 
may be lost. But as the legislative proceed- 
ings of the United States will never, I trust, 
be reproached for the want of temper or can- 
dor ; so shall not the public happiness lan- 
guish from the want of my strenuous and 
warmest cooperations. 



[8 1] 



Washi ngton's 
Farewell Address 



September //, i'/g6. 
Friends and Fellow-Citizens: 



^ I ^HE period for a new election of a 
I citizen, to administer the executive 
government of the United States, 
being not far distant, and the time actually 
arrived, when your thoughts must be em- 
ployed in designating the person, who is to 
be clothed with that important trust, it 
appears to me proper, especially as it may 
conduce to a more distinct expression of the 
public voice, that I should now apprize you 
of the resolution I have formed, to decline 
being considered among the number of those, 
out of whom a choice is to be made. 

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the 
justice to be assured, that this resolution has 
not been taken without a strict regard to all 
the considerations appertaining to the rela- 
tion, which binds a dutiful citizen to his 
country; and that, in withdrawing the tender 

[82] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of service, which silence in my situation 
might imply, I am influenced by no diminu- 
tion of zeal for your future interest ; no de- 
ficiency of grateful respect for your past 
kindness; but am supported by a full con- 
viction that the step is compatible with both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance hith- 
erto in, the office to which your suffrages 
have twice called me, have been a uniform 
sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, 
and to a deference for what appeared to be 
your desire. I constantly hoped, that it 
would have been much earlier in my power, 
consistently with motives, which I was not at 
liberty to disregard, to return to that retire- 
ment, from which I had been reluctantly 
drawn. The strength of my inclination to 
do this, previous to the last election, had 
even led to the preparation of an address to 
declare it to you; but mature reflection on 
the then perplexed and critical posture of 
our affairs with foreign nations, and the 
unanimous advice of persons entitled to my 
confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. 

I rejoice, that the state of your concerns, 
external as well as internal, no longer renders 
the pursuit of inclination incompatible with 
the sentiment of duty, or propriety ; and am 

[83] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

persuaded, whatever partiality may be re- 
tained for my services, that, in the present 
circumstances of our country, you will not 
disapprove my determination to retire. 

The impressions, with which I first under- 
took the arduous trust, were explained on 
the proper occasion. In the discharge of 
this trust, I will only say, that I have, with 
good intentions, contributed towards the 
organization and administration of the 
government the best exertions of which a 
very fallible judgment was capable. Not 
unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority 
of my qualifications, experience in my own 
eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, 
has strengthened the motives to diffidence of 
myself; and every day the increasing weight 
of years admonishes me more and more, that 
the shade of retirement is as necessary to me 
as it will be welcome. Satisfied, that, if any 
circumstances have given peculiar value to 
my services, they were temporary, I have the 
consolation to believe, that, while choice and 
prudence invite me to quit the political 
scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment, which 
is intended to terminate the career of my 
public life, my feelings do not permit me to 

[84] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



suspend the deep acknowledgment of that 
debt of gratitude, which I owe to my beloved 
country for the many honors it has conferred 
upon me ; still more for the steadfast con- 
fidence with which it has supported me ; and 
for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed 
of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by 
services faithful and persevering, though in 
usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits 
have resulted to our country from these 
services, let it always be remembered to your 
praise, and as an instructive example in our 
annals, that under circumstances in which 
the passions, agitated in every direction, were 
liable to mislead, amidst appearances some- 
times dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often 
discouraging, in situations in which not 
unfrequently want of success has counte- 
nanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy 
of your support was the essential prop of the 
efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which 
they were effected. Profoundly penetrated 
with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my 
grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing 
vows that Heaven may continue to you the 
choicest tokens of its beneficence ; that your 
union and brotherly affection may be per- 
petual; that the free constitution, which is 

[85] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

the work of your hands, may be sacredly 
maintained; that its administration in every 
department may be stamped with wisdom 
and virtue ; that, in fine, the happiness of the 
people of these States, under the auspices of 
liberty, may be made complete, by so careful 
a preservation and so prudent a use of this 
blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of 
recommending it to the applause, the affec- 
tion, and adoption of every nation, which is 
yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a 
solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end 
but with my life, and the apprehension of 
danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, 
on an occasion like the present, to offer to 
your solemn contemplation, and to recom- 
mend to your frequent review, some senti- 
ments, which are the result of much reflec- 
tion, of no inconsiderable observation, and 
which appear to me all-important to the per- 
manency of your felicity as a People. These 
will be offered to you with the more freedom, 
as you can only see in them the disinterested 
warnings of a parting friend, who can pos- 
sibly have no personal motive to bias his 
counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encourage- 
ment to it, your indulgent reception of my 

[86] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

sentiments on a former and not dissimilar 
occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with 
every ligament of your hearts, no recom- 
mendation of mine is necessary to fortify or 
confirm the attachment. 

The unity of Government, which consti- 
tutes you one people, is also now dear to you. 
It is justly so : for it is a main pillar in the 
edifice of your real independence, the sup- 
port of your tranquillity at home, your peace 
abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity ; 
of that very Liberty, which you so highly 
prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that, from 
different causes and from different quarters, 
much pains will be taken, many artifices em- 
ployed, to weaken in your minds the convic- 
tion of this truth ; as this is the point in your 
political fortress against which the batteries 
of internal and external enemies w411 be most 
constantly and actively (though often covertly 
and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite mo- 
ment, that you should properly estimate the 
immense value of your national Union to 
your collective and individual happiness ; 
that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, 
and immovable attachment to it ; accustom- 
ing yourselves to think and speak of it as of 

[87] 



rUE AMERICAN IDEA 

the Palladium of your political safety and 
prosperity; watching for its preservation 
with jealous anxiety; discountenancing what- 
ever may suggest even a suspicion, that it 
can in any event be abandoned ; and indig- 
nantly frowning upon the first dawning of 
every attempt to alienate any portion of our 
country from the rest, or to enfeeble the 
sacred ties which now link together the vari- 
ous parts. 

For this you have every inducement of 
sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or 
choice, of a common country, that country 
has a right to concentrate your affections. 
The name of American, which belongs to 
you, in your national capacity, must always 
exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than 
any appellation derived from local discrimi- 
nations. With slight shades of difference, 
you have the same religion, manners, habits, 
and political principles. You have in a com- 
mon cause fought and triumphed together ; 
the Independence and Liberty you possess 
are the work of joint counsels, and joint ef- 
forts, of common dangers, sufferings, and 
successes. 

But these considerations, however power- 
fully they address themselves to your sensi- 

[88] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



bility, are greatly outweighed by those, which 
apply more immediately to your interest. 
Here every portion of our country finds the 
most commanding motives for carefully 
guarding and preserving the Union of the 
whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse 
with the South, protected by the equal laws 
of a common government, finds, in the pro- 
ductions of the latter, great additional re- 
sources of maritime and commercial enterprise 
and precious materials of manufacturing in- 
dustry. The South in the same intercourse, 
benefiting by the agency of the North, sees 
its agriculture grow and its commerce ex- 
pand. Turning partly into its own channels 
the seamen of the North, it finds its parti- 
cular navigation invigorated ; and, while it 
contributes, in different ways, to nourish and 
increase the general mass of the national 
navigation, it looks forward to the protec- 
tion of a maritime strength, to which itself is 
unequally adapted. The East, in a like in- 
tercourse with the West, already finds, and 
in the progressive improvement of interior 
communications by land and water, will more 
and more find, a valuable vent for the com- 
modities which it brings from abroad, or 

[89] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

manufactures at home. The West derives 
from the East supplies requisite to its growth 
and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still 
greater consequence, it must of necessity owe 
the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets 
for its own productions to the weight, in- 
fluence, and the future maritime strength of 
the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by 
an indissoluble community of interest as one 
nation. Any other tenure by which the West 
can hold this essential advantage, whether 
derived from its own separate strength, or 
from an apostate and unnatural connexion 
with any foreign power, must be intrinsically 
precarious. 

While, then, every part of our country 
thus feels an immediate and particular inter- 
est in Union, all the parts combined cannot 
fail to find in the united mass of means and 
efforts greater strength, greater resource, pro- 
portionately greater security from external 
danger, a less frequent interruption of their 
peace by foreign nations; and, what is of in- 
estimable value, they must derive from Union 
an exemption from those broils and wars be- 
tween themselves, which so frequently afflict 
neighbouring countries not tied together by 
the same governments, which their own 

[90] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

rivalships alone would be sufficient to pro- 
duce, but which opposite foreign alliances, 
attachments, and intrigues would stimulate 
and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will 
avoid the necessity of those overgrown mili- 
tary establishments, which, under any form 
of government, are inauspicious to liberty, 
and which are to be regarded as particularly 
hostile to Republican Liberty. In this sense 
it is, that your Union ought to be considered 
as' a main prop of your liberty, and that the 
love of the one ought to endear to you the 
preservation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive 
language to every reflecting and virtuous 
mind, and exhibit the continuance of the 
Union as a primary object of Patriotic de- 
sire. Is there a doubt, whether a common 
government can embrace so large a sphere } 
Let experience solve it. To listen to mere 
speculation in such a case were criminal. 
We are authorized to hope, that a proper 
organization of the whole, with the auxiliary 
agency of governments for the respective 
subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the 
experiment. It is well worth a fair and full 
experiment. With such powerful and obvious 
motives to Union, affecting all parts of our 

[91] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

country, while experience shall not have de- 
monstrated its impracticability, there will al- 
ways be reason to distrust the patriotism of 
those, who in any quarter may endeavour to 
weaken its bands. 

In contemplating the causes, which may 
disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of 
serious concern that any ground should have 
been furnished for characterizing parties by 
Geographical discriminations, Northern and 
Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence 
designing men may endeavour to excite a 
belief, that there is a real difference of local 
interests and views. One of the expedients 
of party to acquire influence, within particular 
districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and 
aims of other districts. You cannot shield 
yourselves too much against the jealousies 
and heart-burnings, which spring from these 
misrepresentations ; they tend to render alien 
to each other those, who ought to be bound 
together by fraternal affection. The inhabit- 
ants of our western country have lately had 
a useful lesson on this head ; they have seen, 
in the negotiation by the Executive, and in 
the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of 
the treaty with Spain, and in the universal 
satisfaction at that event, throughout the 

[92] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

United States, a decisive proof how un- 
founded were the suspicions propagated 
among them of a policy in the General Gov- 
ernment and in the Atlantic States unfriendly 
to their interests in regard to the Mississippi ; 
they have been witnesses to the formation of 
two treaties, that with Great Britain and that 
with Spain, which secure to them every thing 
they could desire, in respect to our foreign 
relations, towards confirming their prosperity. 
Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the 
preservation of these advantages on the Union 
by which they were procured ? Will they not 
henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such 
there are, who would sever them from their 
brethren, and connect them with aliens ? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your 
Union, a Government for the whole is indis- 
pensable. No alliances, however strict, be- 
tween the parts can bean adequate substitute; 
they must inevitably experience the infrac- 
tions and interruptions, which all alliances in 
all times have experienced. Sensible of this 
momentous truth, you have improved upon 
your first essay, by the adoption of a Con- 
stitution of Government better calculated 
than your former for an intimate Union, and 
for the efficacious management of your com- 

[93] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

mon concerns. This Government, the off- 
spring of our own choice, uninfluenced and 
unawed, adopted upon full investigation and 
mature deliberation, completely free in its 
principles, in the distribution of its powers, 
uniting security with energy, and containing 
within itself a provision for its own amend- 
ment, has a just claim to your confidence and 
your support. Respect for its authority, 
compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its 
measures, are duties enjoined by the funda- 
mental maxims of true Liberty. The basis 
of our political systems is the right of the 
people to make and to alter their Constitu- 
tions of Government. But the Constitution 
which at any time exists, till changed by an 
explicit and authentic act of the whole peo- 
ple, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very 
idea of the power and the right of the peo- 
ple to establish Government presupposes the 
duty of every individual to obey the estab- 
lished Government, 

All obstructions to the execution of the 
Laws, all combinations and associations, un- 
der whatever plausible character, with the 
real design to direct, control, counteract, 
or awe the regular deliberation and action 
of the constituted authorities, are destruc- 

[94] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

tive of this fundamental principle, and of 
fatal tendency. They serve to organize fac- 
tion, to give it an artificial and extraordinary 
force ; to put, in the place of the delegated 
will of the nation, the will of a party, often a 
small but artful and enterprising minority of 
the community; and, according to the alter- 
nate triumphs of different parties, to make 
administration the mirror of the ill-concerted 
and incongruous projects of faction, rather 
than the organ of consistent and wholesome 
plans digested by common counsels, and 
modified by mutual interests. 

However combinations or associations of 
the above descriptions may now and then 
answer popular ends, they are likely, in the 
course of time and things, to become potent 
engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and 
unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert 
the power of the people, and to usurp for 
themselves the reins of government ; destroy- 
ing afterwards the very engines, which have 
lifted them to unjust dominion. 

Towards the preservation of your govern- 
ment, and the permanency of your present 
happy state, it is requisite, not only that you 
steadily discountenance irregular oppositions 
to its acknowledged authority, but also that 

[95] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

you resist with care the spirit of innovation 
upon its principles, however specious the 
pretexts. One method of assault may be to 
effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alter- 
ations, which will impair the energy of the 
system and thus to undermine what cannot 
be directly overthrown. In all the changes 
to which you may be invited, remember that 
time and habit are at least as necessary to 
fix the true character of governments, as of 
other human institutions ; that experience is 
the surest standard, by which to test the real 
tendency of the existing constitution of a 
country ; that facility in changes, upon the 
credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, ex- 
poses to perpetual change, from the endless 
variety of hypothesis and opinion ; and 
remember, especially, that, for the efficient 
management of your common interests, in a 
country so extensive as ours, a government 
of as much vigor as is consistent with the 
perfect security of liberty is indispensable. 
Liberty itself will find in such a government, 
with powers properly distributed and ad- 
justed, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, 
little else than a name, where the govern- 
ment is too feeble to withstand the enterprise 
of faction, to confine each member of the 

[96] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

society within the limits prescribed by the 
laws, and to maintain all in the secure and 
tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person 
and property. 

I have already intimated to you the danger 
of parties in the state, with particular 
reference to the foundins^ of them on seo- 
graphical discriminations. Let me now take 
a more comprehensive view, and warn you in 
the most solemn manner against the baneful 
effects of the spirit of party, generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable 
from our nature, having its root in the 
strongest passions of the human mind. It 
exists under different shapes in all govern- 
ments, more or less stifled, controlled, or 
repressed ; but, in those of the popular form, 
it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is 
truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction 
over another, sharpened by the spirit of 
revenge, natural to party dissension, which 
in different ages and countries has perpe- 
trated the most horrid enormities, is itself 
a frightful despotism. But this leads at 
length to a more formal and permanent 
despotism. The disorders and miseries, 
which result, gradually incline the minds of 

[97] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

men to seek security and repose in the 
absolute power of an individual ; and sooner 
or later the chief of some prevailing faction, 
more able or more fortunate than his com- 
petitors, turns this disposition to the pur- 
poses of his own elevation, on the ruins of 
Public Liberty. 

Without looking forward to an extremity 
of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not 
to be entirely out of sight,) the common and 
continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are 
sufficient to make it the interest and duty of 
a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the Public 
Councils, and enfeeble the Public Adminis- 
tration. It agitates the Community with 
ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; 
kindles the animosity of one part against 
another, foments occasionally riot and in- 
surrection. It opens the door to foreign 
influence and corruption, which find a facili- 
tated access to the government itself through 
the channels of party passions. Thus the 
policy and the will of one country are sub- 
jected to the policy and will of another. 

There is an opinion, that parties in free 
countries are useful checks upon the admin- 
istration of the Government, and serve to 

[9S] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

keep alive the spirit of Liberty. This within 
certain limits is probably true ; and in Gov- 
ernments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism 
may look with indulgence, if not with favor, 
upon the spirit of party. But in those of the 
popular character, in Governments purely 
elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. 
From their natural tendency, it is certain 
there will always be enough of that spirit for 
every salutary purpose. And, there being 
constant danger of excess, the effort ought 
to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate 
and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, 
it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its 
bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, 
it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of 
thinking in a free country should inspire 
caution, in those intrusted with its adminis- 
tration, to confine themselves within their 
respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in 
the exercise of the powers of one department 
to encroach upon another. The spirit of en- 
croachment tends to consolidate the powers 
of all the departments in one, and thus to 
create, w^hatever the form of government, a 
real despotism. A just estimate of that love 
of power, and proneness to abuse it, which 

[99] 
LofC. 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

predominates in the human heart, is sufficient 
to satisfy us of the truth of this position. 
The necessity of reciprocal checks in the 
exercise of political power, by dividing and 
distributing it into different depositories, and 
constituting each the Guardian of the Public 
Weal against invasions by the others, has 
been evinced by experiments ancient and 
modern ; some of them in our country and 
under our own eyes. To preserve them 
must be as necessary as to institute them. If 
in the opinion of the people, the distribution 
or modification of the constitutional powers 
be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected 
by an amendment in the way, which the Con- 
stitution designates. But let there be no 
change by usurpation ; for, though this, in one 
instance, may be the instrument of good, it 
is the customary weapon by which free 
governments are destroyed. The precedent 
must always greatly overbalance in per- 
manent evil any partial or transient benefit, 
which the use can at any time yield. 

Of all the dispositions and habits, which 
lead to political prosperity. Religion and 
Morality are indispensable supports. In vain 
would that man claim the tribute of 
Patriotism, who should labor to subvert 

[lOO] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



these great pillars of human happiness, 
these firmest props of the duties of Men and 
Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with 
the pious man, ought to respect and to 
cherish them. A volume could not trace all 
their connexions with private and public 
felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is 
the security for property, for reputation, for 
life, if the sense of religious obligation 
desert the oaths, which are the instruments 
of investigation in Courts of Justice? And 
let us with caution indulge the supposition, 
that morality can be maintained without 
religion. Whatever maybe conceded to the 
influence of refined education on minds of 
peculiar structure, reason and experience 
both forbid us to expect, that national 
morality can prevail in exclusion of religious 
principle. 

It is substantially true, that virtue or 
morality is a necessary spring of popular 
government. The rule, indeed, extends with 
more or less force to every species of free 
government. Who, that is a sincere friend to 
it, can look with indifference upon attempts 
to shake the foundation of the fabric } 

Promote, then, as an object of primary 
importance, institutions for the general dif- 

[lOl] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

fusion of knowledge. In proportion as the 
structure of a government gives force to 
public opinion, it is essential that public 
opinion should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength 
and security, cherish public credit. One 
method of preserving it is, to use it as spar- 
ingly as possible ; avoiding occasions of ex- 
pense by cultivating peace, but remember- 
ing also that timely disbursements to prepare 
for danger frequently prevent much greater 
disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise 
the accumulation of debt, not only by 
shunning occasions of expense, but by vig- 
orous exertions in time of peace to discharge 
the debts, which unavoidable wars may have 
occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon 
posterity the burthen, which we ourselves 
ought to bear. The execution of these 
maxims belongs to your representatives, but 
it is necessary that public opinion should 
co-operate. To facilitate to them the per- 
formance of their duty, it is essential that 
you should practically bear in mind, that 
towards the payment of debts there must be 
Revenue; that to have Revenue there must 
be taxes ; that no taxes can be devised, which 
are not more or less inconvenient and 

[102] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

unpleasant, that the intrinsic embarrassment, 

inseparable from the selection of the proper 
objects (which is always a choice of diffi- 
culties), ought to be a decisive motive for a 
candid construction of the conduct of the 
government in making it, and for a spirit of 
acquiescence in the measures for obtaining 
revenue, which the public exigencies may at 
any time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice towards all 
Nations ; cultivate peace and harmony with 
ail. Religion and Morality enjoin this con- 
duct; and can it be, that good policy does 
not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a 
free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, 
a great Nation, to give to mankind the mag- 
nanimous and too novel example of a people 
always guided by an exalted justice and 
benevolence. Who can doubt, that, in the 
course of time and things, the fruits of such 
a plan would richly repay any temporary 
advantages, which might be lost by a steady 
adherence to it ? Can it be, that Providence 
has not connected the permanent felicity of 
a Nation with its Virtue } The experiment, 
at least, is recommended by every sentiment 
which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it 
rendered impossible by its vices 1 

[103] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing 
is more essential, than that permanent, in- 
veterate antipathies against particular Na- 
tions, and passionate attachments for others, 
should be excluded ; and that, in place of 
them, just and amicable feelings towards all 
should be cultivated. The Nation, which in- 
dulges towards another an habitual hatred, or 
an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. 
It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, 
either of which is sufficient to lead it astray 
from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in 
one nation against another disposes each 
more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay 
hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be 
haughty and intractable, when accidental or 
trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence 
frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, 
and bloody contests. The Nation, prompted 
by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels 
to war the Government, contrary to the best 
calculations of policy. The Government 
sometimes participates in the national pro- 
pensity, and adopts through passion what 
reason would reject; at other times, it makes 
the animosity of the nation subservient to 
projects of hostility instigated by pride, am- 
bition, and other sinister and pernicious mo- 

[104] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

tives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps 
the Hberty, of Nations has been the victim. 
So likewise, a passionate attachment of 
one Nation for another produces a variety of 
evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, 
facilitating the illusion of an imaginary 
common interest, in cases where no real com- 
mon interest exists, and infusing into 
one the enmities of the other, betrays the 
former into a participation in the quarrels 
and wars of the latter, without adequate in- 
ducement or justification. It leads also to 
concessions to the favorite Nation of privi- 
leges denied to others, which is apt doubly 
to injure the Nation making the concessions; 
by unnecessarily parting with what ought to 
have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, 
ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the 
parties from whom equal privileges are with- 
held. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, 
or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves 
to the favorite nauon,) facility to betray or 
sacrifice the interests of their own countrv, 
without odium, sometimes even with popu- 
larity ; gilding, with the appearances of a 
virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable 
deference for public opinion, or a laudable 
zeal for public good, the base of foolish com- 

[105] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

pliances of ambition, corruption, or infatua- 
tion. 

As avenues to foreign influence in innum- 
erable ways, such attachments are particu- 
larly alarming to the truly enlightened and 
independent Patriot. How many opportuni- 
ties do they afford to tamper with domestic 
factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to 
mislead public opinion, to influence or awe 
the Public Councils ! Such an attachment of 
a small or weak, towards a great and pow- 
erful nation, dooms the former to be the 
satellite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign 
influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow- 
citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought 
to be constantly awake; since history and 
experience prove, that foreign influence is 
one of the most baneful foes of Republican 
Government. But that jealousy, to be use- 
ful, must be impartial ; else it becomes the 
instrument of the very influence to be avoided, 
instead of a defence against it. Excessive 
partiality for one foreign nation, and exces- 
sive dislike of another, cause those whom 
they actuate to see danger only on one side, 
and serve to veil and even second the arts 
of influence on the other. Real patriots, 

[io6] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, 
are liable to become suspected and odious; 
while its tools and dupes usurp the applause 
and confidence of the people, to surrender 
their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard 
to foreign nations^ is, in extending our com- 
merial relations, to have with them as little 
political connexion as possible. So far as 
we have already formed engagements, let 
them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. 
Here let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, 
which to us have none, or a very remote 
relation. Hence she must be engaged in 
frequent controversies, the causes of which 
are essentially foreign to our concerns. 
Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to 
implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the 
ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the 
ordinary combinations and collisions of her 
friendships or enmities. 

Our detached and distant situation invites 
and enables us to pursue a different course. 
If we remain one people, under an efficient 
government, the period is not far off, when 
we may defy material injury from external 
annoyance; when we may take such an 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

attitude as will cause the neutrality, we may 
at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously 
respected; when belligerent nations, under 
the impossibility of making acquisitions upon 
us, will not lightly hazard the giving us pro- 
vocation ; when we may choose peace or war, 
as our interest, guided by justice, shall 
counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar 
a situation? Why quit our own to stand 
upon foreign ground? Why, by inter- 
weaving our destiny with that of any part of 
Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity 
in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, 
interest, humor, or caprice ? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of per- 
manent alliances with any portion of the for- 
eign world ; so far, I mean, as we are now at 
liberty to do it ; for let me not be understood 
as capable of patronizing infidelity to exist- 
ing engagements. I hold the maxim no less 
applicable to public than to private affairs, 
that honesty is alv/ays the best policy. I 
repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be 
observed in their genuine sense. But, in my 
opinion, it is unnecessary and would be un- 
wise to extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by 

[io8] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

suitable establishments, on a respectable 
defensive posture, we may safely trust to 
temporary alliances for extraordinary emer- 
gencies. 

Harmony, liberal intercouse with all na- 
tions, are recommended by policy, humanity, 
and interest. But even our commercial 
policy should hold an equal and impartial 
hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive 
favors or preferences ; consulting the natural 
course of things; diffusing and diversifying by 
gentle means the streams of commerce, but 
forcing nothing; establishing, with powers so 
disposed, in order to give trade a stable 
course, to define the rights of our merchants, 
and to enable the government to support 
them, conventional rules of intercourse, the 
best that present circumstances and mutual 
opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable 
to be from time to time abandoned or varied, 
as experience and circumstances shall dictate; 
constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in 
one nation to look for disinterested favors 
from another; that it must pay with a portion 
of its independence for whatever it may 
accept under that character; that, by such 
acceptance, it may place itself in the con- 
dition of having given equivalents for nomi- 

[109] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

nal favors, and yet of being reproached with 
ingratitude for not giving more. There can 
be no greater error than to expect or cal- 
culate upon real favors from nation to nation. 
It is an illusion, which experience must cure, 
which a just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these 
counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I 
dare not hope they will make the strong .and 
lasting impression I could wish ; that they will 
control the usual current of the passions, or 
prevent our nation from running the course, 
which has hitherto marked the destiny of 
nations. But, if I may even flatter myself, 
that they may be productive of some partial 
benefit, some occasional good; that they may 
now and then recur to moderate the fury of 
party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of 
foreign intrigue, to guard against the im- 
postures of pretended patriotism; this hope 
will be a full recompense for the solicitude 
for your welfare, by which they have been 
dictated. 

How far in the discharge of my official 
duties, I have been guided by the principles 
which have been delineated, the public 
records and other evidences of my conduct 
must witness to you and to the world. To 

[no] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

myself, the assurance of my own conscience 
is, that I have at least believed myself to be 
guided by them. 

In relating to the still subsisting war in 
Europe, my Proclamation of the 2 2d of 
April, 1793, is the index to ray Plan. Sanc- 
tioned by your approving voice, and by that 
of your Representatives in both Houses of 
Congress, the spirit of that measure has con- 
tinually governed me, uninfluenced by any 
attempts to deter or divert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the aid 
of the best lights I could obtain, I was well 
satisfied that our country, under all the cir- 
cumstances of the case, had a right to take, 
and was bound in duty and interest to take, 
a neutral position. Having taken it, I de- 
termined, as far as should depend upon me, 
to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, 
and firmness. 

The considerations, which respect the 
right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary 
on this occasion to detail. I will only 
observe, that, according to my understanding 
of the matter, that right, so far from being 
denied by any of the Belligerent Powers, 
has been virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding a neutral conduct 

[III] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

may be inferred, without any thing more, 
from the obligation which justice and 
humanity impose on every nation, in cases 
in which it is free to act, to maintain invio- 
late the relations of peace and amity towards 
other nations. 

The inducements of interest for observing 
that conduct will best be referred to your 
own reflections and experience. With me, 
a predominant motive has been to endeavour 
to gain time to our country to settle and 
mature its yet recent institutions, and to 
progress without interruption to that degree 
of strength and consistency, which is neces- 
sary to give it, humanly speaking, the com- 
mand of its own fortunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my 
administration, I am unconscious of inten- 
tional error, I am nevertheless too sensible 
of my defects not to think it probable that I 
may have committed many errors. What- 
ever they may be, I fervently beseech the 
Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to 
which they may tend. I shall also carry with 
me the hope, that my Country will never 
cease to view them with indulgence ; and 
that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated 
to its service with an upright zeal, the faults 

[112] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of incompetent abilities will be consigned to 
oblivion, as myself must soon be to the man- 
sions of rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this as in other 
things, and actuated by that fervent love 
towards it, which is so natural to a man, who 
views in it the native soil of himself and his 
progenitors for several generations ; I antici- 
pate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in 
which I promise myself to realize, without 
alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in 
the midst of my fellow-citzens, the benign 
influence of good laws under a free govern- 
ment, the ever favorite object of my heart, 
and the happy reward, as I trust, of our 
mutual cares, labors, and dangers. 



[113] 



The Monroe 
o c tr i n e 




Extract from President Monroe's Message 
TO Congress; December 2, 1823. 

Fellow- Citizens of the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives : 

T the proposal of the Russian Imperial 
Government, made through the min- 
ister of the Emperor residing here, a 
full power and instructions have been trans- 
mitted to the minister of the United States 
at St. Petersburg, to arrange by amicable 
negotiation, the respective rights and in- 
terests of the two nations on the northwest 
coast of this continent. A similiar proposal 
has been made by his Imperial Majesty 
to the Government of Great Britain, which 
likewise has been acceded to. The Govern- 
ment of the United States has been desirous, 
by this friendly proceeding, of manifesting 
the great value which they have invariably 
attached to the friendship of the Emperor, 
and their solicitude to cultivate the best un- 

[114] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

derstanding with his Government. In the 
discussions to which this interest has given 
rise, and in the arrangements by which they 
may terminate, the occasion has been judged 
proper for asserting as a principle in which 
the rights and interests of the United States 
are involved, that the American continents, 
by the free and independent condition which 
they have assumed and maintain, are hence- 
forth not to be considered as subjects for 
future colonization by any European powers. 

It was stated at the commencement of the 
last session that a great effort was then mak- 
ing in Spain and Portugal to improve the 
condition of the people of those countries, 
and that it appeared to be conducted with 
extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely 
be remarked that the result has been, so far, 
very different from what was then anticipated. 
Of events in that quarter of the globe with 
which we have so much intercourse, and 
from which we derive our origin, we have 
always been anxious and interested specta- 
tors. The citizens of the United States 
cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor 
of the liberty and happiness of their fellow- 
men on that side of the Atlantic. In the 

[115] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

wars of the European powers in matters re- 
lating to themselves we have never taken 
any part, nor does it comport with our policy 
so to do. It is only when our rights are 
invaded or seriously menaced that we resent 
injuries or make preparation for our defense. 
With the movements in this hemisphere we 
are, of necessity, more immediately connected, 
and by causes which must be obvious to all 
enlightened and impartial observers. The 
political system of the allied powers is essen- 
tially different in this respect from that of 
America. This difference proceeds from 
that which exists in their respective Gov- 
ernments. And to the defense of our own, 
which has been achieved by the loss of so 
much blood and treasure, and matured by 
the wisdom of our most enlightened citizens, 
and under which we have enjoyed un- 
exampled felicity, this whole nation is de- 
voted. We owe it, therefore, to candor, and 
to the amicable relations existing between 
the United States and those powers, to 
declare that we should consider any attempt 
on their part to extend their system to any 
portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to 
our peace and safety. With the existing 
colonies or dependencies of any European 

[ii6] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

power we have not interfered and shall not 
interfere. But with the Governments who 
have declared their independence, and main- 
tained it, and whose independence we have, 
on great consideration and on just principles, 
acknowledged, we could not view any inter- 
position for the purpose of oppressing them, 
or controlling in any other manner their 
destiny, by any European power, in any 
other light than as the manifestation of an 
unfriendly disposition towards the United 
States. In the war between these new Gov- 
ernments and Spain we declared our neu- 
trality at the time of their recognition, and to 
this we have adhered and shall continue to 
adhere, provided no change shall occur 
which, in the judgment of the competent 
authorities of this Government, shall make a 
corresponding change on the part of the 
United States indispensable to their security. 
The late events in Spain and Portugal 
show that Europe is still unsettled. Of this 
important fact no stronger proof can be 
adduced than that the allied powers should 
have thought it proper, on any principle 
satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed, 
by force, in the internal concerns of Spain. 
To what extent such interposition may be 

[117] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

carried, on the same principle, is a question 
in which all independent powers whose Gov- 
ernments differ from theirs are interested, 
even those most remote, and surely none 
more so than the United States. Our policy 
in regard to Europe, which was adopted at 
an early stage of the wars which have so long 
agitated that quarter of the globe, never- 
theless remains the same, which is, not to 
interfere in the internal concerns of any of 
its powers ; to consider the Government de 
facto as the legitimate Government for us; 
to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to 
preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and 
manly policy, meeting, in all instances, the 
just claims of every power; submitting to 
injuries from none. But in regard to these 
continents, circumstances are eminently and 
conspicuously different. It is impossible 
that the allied powers should extend their 
political system to any portion of either con- 
tinent without endangering our peace and 
happiness; nor can any one believe that our 
Southern brethren, if left to themselves, 
would adopt it of their own accord. It is 
equally impossible, therefore, that we should 
behold such interposition, in any form, with 
indifference. If we look to the comparative 

[ii8] 



THE A M ERIC AN IDE A 

strength and resources of Spain and those 
new Governments, and their distance from 
each other, it must be obvious that she can 
never subdue them. It is still the true 
policy of the United States to leave the 
parties to themselves, in the hope that other 
powers will pursue the same course. 

If we compare the present condition of 
our Union with its actual state at the close 
of our Revolution, the history of the world 
furnishes no example of a progress in im- 
provement in all the important circum- 
stances which constitute the happiness of a 
nation which bears any resemblance to it. 
At the first epoch our population did not 
exceed three millions. By the last census 
it amounted to about ten millions, and, 
what is more extraordinary, it is almost 
altogether native, for the emigration from 
other countries has been inconsiderable. 
At the first epoch half the territory within 
our acknowledged limits was uninhabited 
and a wilderness. Since then new territory 
has been acquired of vast extent, comprising 
within it many rivers, particularly the Mis- 
sissippi, the navigation of which to the ocean 
was of the highest importance to the original 
States. Over this territory our population 

[119] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

has expanded in every direction, and new- 
States have been established almost equal in 
number to those which formed the first bond 
of our Union. This expansion of our popu- 
lation and accession of new States to our 
Union have had the happiest effect on all its 
highest interests. That it has eminently 
augmented our resources and added to our 
strength and respectability as a power is 
admitted by all. But it is not in these im- 
portant circumstances only that this happy 
effect is felt. It is manifest that, by enlarging 
the basis of our system and increasing the 
number of States, the system itself has been 
greatly strengthened in both its branches. 
Consolidation and disunion have thereby 
been rendered equally impracticable. Each 
Government, confiding in its own strength, 
has less to apprehend from the other ; and in 
consequence, each, enjoying a greater freedom 
of action, is rendered more efficient for all 
the purposes for which it was instituted. It 
is unnecessary to treat here of the vast im- 
provement made in the system itself by the 
adoption of this Constitution, and of its 
happy effect in elevating the character and 
in protecting the rights of the nation as well 
as of individuals. To what, then, do we owe 

[120] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



these blessings? It is known to all that we 
derive them from the excellence of our insti- 
tutions. Ought we not, then, to adopt every 
measure which may be necessary to per- 
petuate them ? 

JAMES MONROE. 

Washington, Dec. 2, 1823. 



[121] 



Lincoln's Cooper 
Institute Address 

Address at Cooper Institute, New York, 
February 27, i860. 

Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens of New 
York: — The facts with which I shall deal 
this evening are mainly old and familiar ; nor 
is there anything new in the general use I 
shall make of them. If there shall be any 
novelty, it will be in the mode of presenting 
the facts, and the inferences and obser- 
vations following that presentation. In his 
speech last autumn at Columbus, Ohio, as 
reported in the " New-York Times," Senator 
Douglas said: "Our fathers, when they 
framed the government under which we live, 
understood this question just as well, and 
even better, than we do now." 

. I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text 
for this discourse. I so adopt it because it 
furnishes a precise and an agreed starting- 
point for a discussion between Republicans 
and that wing of the Democracy headed by 

[122] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

Senator Douglas. It simply leaves the 
inquiry : What was the understanding those 
fathers had of the question mentioned? 

What is the frame of government under 
which we live ? The answer must be, " The 
Constitution of the United States." That 
Constitution consists of the original, framed 
in 1787, and under which the present gov- 
ernment first went into operation, and twelve 
subsequently framed amendments, the first 
ten of which were framed in 1 789. 

Who were our fathers that framed the 
Constitution? I suppose the "thirty-nine" 
who signed the original instrument may be 
fairly called our fathers who framed that 
part of the present government. It is almost 
exactly true to say they framed it, and it 
is altogether true to say they fairly repre- 
sented the opinion and sentiment of the 
whole nation at that time. Their names, 
being familiar to nearly all, and accessible to 
quite all, need not now be repeated. 

I take these " thirty-nine " for the present, 
as being " our fathers who framed the gov- 
ernment under which we live." What is the 
question which, according to the text, those 
fathers understood "just as well, and even 
better, than we do now"? 

[^23] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

It is this : Does the proper division of 
local from Federal authority, or anything 
in the Constitution, forbid our Federal Gov- 
ernment to control as to slavery in our 
Federal Territories? 

Upon this. Senator Douglas holds the 
affirmative, and Republicans the negative. 
This affirmation and denial form an issue; 
and this issue — this question — is precisely 
what the text declares our fathers understood 
"better than we." Let us now inquire 
whether the "thirty-nine," or any of them, 
ever acted upon this question; and if they 
did, how they acted upon it — how they ex- 
pressed that better understanding. In 1784, 
three years before the Constitution, the 
United States then owning the Northwestern. 
Territory and no other, the Congress of the 
Confederation had before them the question 
of prohibiting slavery in that Territory ; and 
four of the " thirty-nine " who afterward 
framed the Constitution were in that 
Congress, and voted on that question. Of 
these, Roger Sherman, Thomas Mifflin and 
Hugh Williamson voted for the prohibition, 
thus showing that, in their understanding, 
no line dividing local from Federal authority, 
nor anything else, properly forbade the Fed- 

[124] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

eral Government to control as to slavery in 
Federal territory. The other of the four, 
James McHenry, voted against the prohi- 
bition, showing that for some cause he 
thought it improper to vote for it. 

In 1787, still before the Constitution, but 
while the convention was in session framing 
it, and while the Northwestern Territory 
still was the only Territory owned by the 
United States, the same question of pro- 
hibiting slavery in the Territory again came 
before the Congress of the Confederation ; 
and two more of the " thirty-nine " who after- 
ward signed the Constitution were in that 
Congress, and voted on the question. They 
were William Blount and William Few; and 
they both voted for the prohibition — thus 
showing that in their understanding no line 
dividing local from Federal authority, nor 
anything else, properly forbade the Federal 
Government to control as to slavery in Fed- 
eral territory. This time the prohibition 
became a law, being part of what is now well 
known as the ordinance of 'Sj. 

The question of Federal control of slavery 
in the Territories seems not to have been 
directly before the convention which framed 
the original Constitution ; and hence it is not 

[125] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

recorded that the " thirty-nine " or any of 
them, while engaged on that instrument, ex- 
pressed any opinion on that precise question. 

In 1789, by the first Congress which sat 
under the Constitution, an act was passed 
to enforce the ordinance of '87, including the 
prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern 
Territory. The bill for this act was reported 
by one of the "thirty-nine" — Thomas Fitz- 
simmons, then a member of the House of 
Representatives from Pennsylvania. It went 
through all its stages without a word of op- 
position, and finally passed both branches 
without ayes and nays, which is equivalent 
to a unanimous passage. In this Congress 
there were sixteen of the thirty-nine fathers 
who framed the original Constitution. They 
were John Langdon, Nicholas Oilman, Wil- 
liam S. Johnson, Roger Sherman, Robert 
Morris, Thomas Fitzsimmons, William Few, 
Abraham Baldwin, Rufus King, William 
Paterson, George Clymer, Richard Bassett, 
George Read, Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll, 
and James Madison. 

This shows that, in their understanding, 
no line dividing local from Federal authority, 
nor anything in the Constitution, properly 
forbade Congress to prohibit slavery in the 

[126] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

Federal territory ; else both their fidelity to 
correct principle, and their oath to support 
the Constitution, would have constrained 
them to oppose the prohibition. 

Again, George Washington, another of the 
"thirty nine/' was then President of the 
United States, and as such approved and 
signed the bill, thus completing its validity 
as a law, and thus showing that, in his un- 
derstanding, no line dividing local from Fed- 
eral authority, nor anything in the Consti- 
tution, forbade the Federal Government to 
control as to slavery in Federal territory. 

No great while after the adoption of the 
original Constitution, North Carolina ceded 
to the Federal Government the country now 
constituting the State of Tennessee ; and a 
few years later Georgia ceded that which 
now constitutes the States of Mississippi and 
Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was 
made a condition by the ceding States that 
the Federal Government should not prohibit 
slavery in the ceded country. Besides this, 
slavery was then actually in the ceded country. 
Under these circumstances. Congress, on tak- 
ing charge of these countries, did not abso- 
lutely prohibit slavery within them. But they 
did interfere with it — take control of it — 

[127] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

even there, to a certain extent. In 1798 
Congress organized the Territory of Missis- 
sippi. In the act of organization they pro- 
hibited the bringing of slaves into the Terri- 
tory from any place without the United 
States, by fine, and giving freedom to slaves 
so brought. This act passed both branches 
of Congress without yeas and nays. In that 
Congress were three of the " thirty-nine" who 
framed the original Constitution. They 
were John Langdon, George Read, and 
Abraham Baldwin. They all probably voted 
for it. Certainly they would have placed their 
opposition to it upon record if, in their un- 
derstanding, any line dividing local from Fed- 
eral authority, or anything in the Con- 
stitution, properly forbade the Federal Gov- 
ernment to control as to slavery in Federal 
territory. 

In 1803 the Federal Government pur- 
chased the Louisiana country. Our former 
territorial acquisitions came from certain of 
our own States ; but this Louisiana country 
was acquired from a foreign nation. In 1804 
Congress gave a territorial organization to 
that part of it which now constitutes the 
State of Louisiana. New Orleans, lying 
within that part, was an old and compara- 

[128] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

lively large city. There were other consid- 
erable towns and settlements, and slavery was 
extensively and thoroughly intermingled with 
the people. Congress did not, in the Terri- 
torial Act, prohibit slavery; but they did 
interfere with it — take control of it — in a 
more marked and extensive way than they 
did in the case of Mississippi. The sub- 
stance of the provision therein made in re- 
lation to slaves was : 

I St. That no slave should be imported 
into the Territory from foreign parts. 

2d. That no slave should be carried into 
it who had been imported into the United 
States since the first day of May, 1798. 

3d. That no slave should be carried into 
it, except by the owner, and for his own use 
as a settler; the penalty in all the cases 
being a fine upon the violator of the law, and 
freedom to the slave. 

This act also was passed without ayes or 
nays. In the Congress which passed it 
there were two of the " thirty-nine." They 
were Abraham Baldwin and Jonathan Day- 
ton. As stated in the case of Mississippi, it 
is probable they both voted for it. They 
would not have allowed it to pass without 
recording their opposition to it if, in their 

[129] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

understanding, it violated either the line 
properly dividing local from Federal au- 
thority, or any provision of the Constitution. 

In 1819-20 came and passed the Mis- 
souri question. Many votes were taken, by 
yeas and nays, in both branches of Con- 
gress, upon the various phases of the gen- 
eral question. Two of the "thirty-nine" — 
Rufus King and Charles Pinckney — were 
members of that Congress. Mr. King 
steadily voted for slavery prohibition and 
against all compromises, while Mr. Pinckney 
as steadily voted against slavery prohibition 
and against all compromises. By this, Mr. 
King showed that, in his understanding, no 
line dividing local from Federal authority, 
nor anything in the Constitution, was vio- 
lated by Congress prohibiting slavery in 
Federal territory ; while Mr. Pinckney, by his 
votes, showed that, in his understanding, 
there was some sufficient reason for opposing 
such prohibition in that case. 

The cases I have mentioned are the only 
acts of the "thirty-nine," or of any of them, 
upon the direct issue, which I have been able 
to discover. 

To enumerate the persons who thus acted 
as being four in 1784, two in 1787, seventeen 

[130] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

in 1789, three in 1798, two in 1804, ^^d two 
in 1819-20, there would be thirty of them. 
But this would be counting John Langdon, 
Roger Sherman, William Few, Rufus King, 
and George Read each twice, and Abraham 
Baldwin three times. The true number of 
those of the " thirty-nine " whom I have 
shown to have acted upon the question 
which, by the text, they understood better 
than we, is twenty-three, leaving sixteen not 
shown to have acted upon it in any way. 

Here, then, we have twenty-three out of 
our thirty-nine fathers " who framed the 
government under which we live," who have, 
upon their official responsibility and their 
corporal oaths, acted upon the very question 
which the text affirms they " understood just 
as well, and even better, than we do now"; 
and twenty-one of them — a clear majority of 
the whole "thirty-nine" — so acting upon it 
as to make them guilty of gross political 
impropriety and willful perjury if, in their 
understanding, any proper division between 
local and Federal authority, or anything in 
the Constitution they had made themselves, 
and sworn to support, forbade the Federal 
Government to control as to slavery in the 
Federal Territories. Thus the twenty-one 

[131] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

acted ; and, as actions speak louder than 
words, so actions under such responsibility 
speak still louder. 

Two of the twenty-three voted against con- 
gressional prohibition of slavery in the 
Federal Territories, in the instances in which 
they acted upon the question. But for what 
reasons they so voted is not known. They 
may have done so because they thought a 
proper division of local from Federal au- 
thority, or some provision or principle of 
the Constitution, stood in the way; or they 
may, without any such question, have voted 
against the prohibition on what appeared to 
them to be sufficient grounds of expediency. 
No one who has sworn to support the Con- 
stitution can conscientiously vote for what 
he understands to be an unconstitutional 
measure, however expedient he may think it; 
but one may and ought to vote against a 
measure which he deems constitutional if, at 
the same time, he deems it inexpedient. It, 
therefore, would be unsafe to set down even 
the two who voted against the prohibition as 
having done so because, in their under- 
standing, any proper division of local from 
Federal authority, or anything in the Con- 
stitution, forbade the Federal Government 

[132] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

to control as to slavery in Federal terri- 
tory. 

The remaining sixteen of the " thirty-nine," 
so far as I have discovered, have left no 
record of their understanding upon the direct 
question of Federal control of slavery in the 
Federal Territories. But there is much 
reason to believe that their understanding 
upon that question would not have appeared 
different from that of their twenty-three 
compeers, had it been manifested at all. 

For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the 
text, I have purposely omitted whatever 
understanding may have been manifested by 
any person, however distinguished, other 
than the thirty-nine fathers, who framed the 
original Constitution ; and, for the same 
reason, I have also omitted whatever under- 
standing may have been manifested by any 
of the '* thirty-nine " even on any other phase 
of the general question of slavery. If we 
should look into their acts and declarations 
on those other phases, as the foreign slave- 
trade, and the morality and policy of slavery 
generally, it would appear to us that on the 
direct question of Federal control of slavery 
in Federal Territories, the sixteen, if they 
had acted at all, would probably have acted 

[133] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

just as the twenty-three did. Among that 
sixteen were several of the most noted anti- 
slavery men of those times, — as Dr. Franklin, 
Alexander Hamilton, and Gouverneur Mor- 
ris, — while there was not one now known to 
have been otherwise, unless it may be John 
Rutledge, of South Carolina. 

The sum of the whole is, that of our 
thirty-nine fathers who framed the original 
Constitution, twenty-one — a clear majority 
of the whole — certainly understood that no 
proper division of local from Federal author- 
ity, nor any part of the Constitution, forbade 
the Federal Government to control slavery 
in the Federal Territories ; while all the rest 
had probably the same understanding. Such, 
unquestionably, was the understanding of 
our fathers who framed the original Con- 
stitution ; and the text afHrms that they 
understood the question " better than we." 

But, so far, I have been considering the 
understanding of the question manifested by 
the framers of the original Constitution. In 
and by the original instrument, a mode was 
provided for amending it; and, as I have 
already stated, the present frame of "the 
government under which we live " consists 
of that original, and twelve amendatory 

[134] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

articles framed and adopted since. Those 
who now insist that Federal control of slavery 
in Federal Territories violates the Consti- 
tution, point us to the provisions which they 
suppose it thus violates; and, as I under- 
stand, they all fix upon provisions in these 
amendatory articles, and not in the original 
instrument. The Supreme Court, in the 
Dred Scott case, plant themselves upon the 
fifth amendment, which provides that no 
person shall be deprived of "life, liberty, or 
property without due process of law"; while 
Senator Douglas and his peculiar adherents 
plant themselves upon the tenth amend- 
ment, providing that " the powers not dele- 
gated to the United States by the Consti- 
tution " " are reserved to the States respec- 
tively, or to the people." 

Now, it so happens that these amend- 
ments were framed by the first Congress 
which sat under the Constitution — the iden- 
tical Congress which passed the act, already 
mentioned, enforcing the prohibition of 
slavery in the Northwestern Territory. Not 
only was it the same Congress, but they 
were the indentical, same individual men 
who, at the same session, and at the same 
time within the session, had under consid- 

[135] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

eration, and in progress toward maturity, 
these constitutional amendments, and this 
act prohibiting slavery in all the territory 
the nation then owned. The constitutional 
amendments were introduced before, and 
passed after, the act enforcing the ordinance 
of '^j', so that, during the whole pendency 
of the act to enforce the ordinance, the 
constitutional amendments were also pend- 
ing. 

The seventy-six members of that Congress, 
includino: sixteen of the framers of the 
original Constitution, as before stated, were 
pre-eminently our fathers who framed that 
part of " the government under which we 
live " which is now claimed as forbidding the 
Federal Government to'control slavery in the 
Federal Territories. 

Is it not a little presumptuous in any one 
at this day to afHrm that the two things 
which that Congress deliberately framed 
and carried to maturity at the same time, 
are absolutely inconsistent with each other? 
And does not such affirmation become im- 
pudently absurd when coupled with the other 
affirmation, from the same mouth, that those 
who did the two things alleged to be incon- 
sistent, understood whether they really were 

[136] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

inconsistent better than we — better than he 
who affirms that they are inconsistent? 

It is surely safe to assume that the thirty- 
nine framers of the original Constitution, 
and the seventy-six members of the Congress 
which framed the amendments thereto, taken 
together, do certainly include those who may 
be fairly called " our fathers who framed the 
government under which we live." And so 
assuming, I defy any man to show that any 
one of them ever, in his whole life, de- 
clared that, in his understanding, any proper 
division of local from Federal authority, or 
any part of the Constitution, forbade the 
Federal Government to control as to slavery 
in the Federal Territories. I go a step 
further. I defy any one to show that any 
living man in the whole world ever did, prior 
to the beginning of the present century (and 
I might almost say prior to the beginning of 
the last half of the present century), declare 
that, in his understanding, any proper divis- 
ion of local from Federal authority, or any 
part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
Government to control as to slavery in the 
Federal Territories. To those who now so 
declare I give not only "our fathers who 
framed the government under which we live," 

[137] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

but with them all other living men within 
the century in which it was framed, among 
whom to search, and they shall not be able to 
find the evidence of a single man agreeing 
with them. 

Now, and here, let me guard a little 
against being misunderstood. I do not 
mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly 
in whatever our fathers did. To do so would 
be to discard all the lights of current ex- 
perience — to reject all progress, all improve- 
ment. What I do say is that, if we would 
supplant the opinions and policy of our 
fathers in any case, we should do so upon 
evidence so conclusive, and argument so 
clear, that even their great authority, fairly 
considered and weighed, cannot stand; and 
most surely not in a case whereof we our- 
selves declare they understood the question 
better than we. 

If any man at this day sincerely believes 
that a proper division of local from Federal 
authority, or any part of the Constitution, 
forbids the Federal Government to control 
as to slavery in the Federal Territories, he is 
right to say so, and to enforce his position 
by all truthful evidence and fair argument 
which he can. But he has no right to mis- 

[138] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

lead others, who have less access to history, 
and less leisure to study it, into the false 
belief that " our fathers who framed the gov- 
ernment under which we live" were of the 
same opinion — thus substituting falsehood 
and deception for truthful evidence and fair 
argument. If any man at this day sincerely 
believes " our fathers who framed the gov- 
ernment under which we live" used and 
applied principles, in other cases, which 
ought to have led them to understand that a 
proper division of local from Federal au- 
thority, or some part of the Constitution, 
forbids the Federal Government to control 
as to slavery in the Federal Territories, he 
is right to say so. But he should, at the 
same time, brave the responsibility of de- 
claring that, in his opinion, he understands 
their principles better than they did them- 
selves; and especially should he not shirk 
that responsibility by asserting that they 
"understood the question just as well, and 
even better, than we do now." 

But enough ! Let all who believe that 
" our fathers who framed the government 
under which we live understood this question 
just as well, and even better, than we do 
now," speak as they spoke, and act as they 

[139] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

acted upon it. This is all Republicans ask 
— all Republicans desire — in relation to 
slavery. As those fathers marked it, so let 
it be again marked, as an evil not to be 
extended, but to be tolerated and protected 
only because of and so far as its actual 
presence among us makes that toleration and 
protection a necessity. Let all the guaran- 
ties those fathers gave it be not grudgingly, 
but fully and fairly, maintained. For this 
Republicans contend, and with this, so far 
as I know or believe, they will be content. 

And now, if they would listen, — as I 
suppose they will not, — I would address a 
few words to the Southern people. 

I would say to them : You consider your- 
selves a reasonable and a just people; and I 
consider that in the general qualities of 
reason and justice you are not inferior to 
any other people. Still, when you speak of 
us Republicans, you do so only to denounce 
us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better 
than outlaws. You will grant a hearing to 
pirates or murderers, but nothing like it to 
" Black Republicans." In all your conten- 
tions with one another, each of you deems 
an unconditional condemnation of " Black 
Republicanism " as the first thing to be 

[140] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

attended to. Indeed, such condemnation of 
us seems to be an indispensable prerequisite 
— license, so to speak — among you to be 
admitted or permitted to speak at all. Now 
can you or not be prevailed upon to pause 
and to consider whether this is quite just to 
us, or even to yourselves .? Bring forward 
your charges and specifications, and then be 
patient long enough to hear us deny or 
justify. 

You say we are sectional. We deny it. 
That makes an issue ; and the burden of 
proof is upon you. You produce your proof; 
and what is it ? Why, that our party has 
no existence in your section — gets no votes 
in your section. The fact is substantially 
true; but does it prove the issue ? If it does, 
then in case we should, without change of 
principle, begin to get votes in your section, 
we should thereby cease to be sectional. 
You cannot escape this conclusion; and yet 
are you willing to abide by it? If you are, 
you will probably soon find that we have 
ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes 
in your section this very year. You will then 
begin to discover, as the truth plainly is, 
that your proof does not touch the issue. 
The fact that we get no votes in your section 

[141] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

is a fact of your making, and not of ours. 
And if there be fault in that fact, that fault 
is primarily yours, and remains so until you 
show that we repel you by some wrong 
principle or practice. If we do repel you by 
any wrong principle or practice, the fault is 
ours ; but this brings you to where you ought 
to have started — to a discussion of the right 
or wrong of our principle. If our principle, 
put in practice, would wrong your section 
for the benefit of ours, or for any other 
object, then our principle, and we with it, are 
sectional, and are justly opposed and de- 
nounced as such. Meet us, then, on the 
question of whether our principle, put in 
practice, would wrong your section ; and so 
meet us as if it were possible that something 
may be said on our side. Do you accept the 
challenge? No! Then you really believe 
that the principle which "our fathers who 
framed the government under which we live" 
thought so clearly right as to adopt it, and 
indorse it again and again, upon their official 
oaths, is in fact so clearly wrong as to de- 
mand your condemnation without a moment's 
consideration. 

Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces 
the warning against sectional parties given 

[142] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

by Washington in his Farewell Address. 
Less than eight years before Washington 
gave that warning, he had, as President of 
the United States, approved and signed an 
act of Congress enforcing the prohibition of 
slavery in the Northwestern Territory, which 
act embodied the policy of the government 
upon that subject up to and at the very mo- 
ment he penned that warning; and about 
one year after he penned it, he wrote Lafay- 
ette that he considered that prohibition a 
wise measure, expressing in the same con- 
nection his hope that we should at some 
time have a confederacy of free States. 

Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sec- 
tionalism has since arisen upon this same 
subject, is that warning a weapon in your 
hands against us, or in our hands against 
you ? Could Washington himself speak, 
would he cast the blame of that sectionalism 
upon us, who sustain his policy, or upon you, 
who repudiate it } We respect that warning 
of Washington, and we commend it to you, 
together with his example pointing to the 
right application of it. 

But you say you are conservative — em- 
inently conservative — while we are revolu- 
tionary, destructive, or something of the sort. 

[143] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

What is conservatism ? Is it not adherence 
to the old and tried, against the new and 
untried ? We stick to, contend for, the iden- 
tical old policy on the point in controversy 
which was adopted by " our fathers who 
framed the government under which we 
live " ; while you with one accord reject, and 
scout, and spit upon that old policy, and in- 
sist upon substituting something new. True, 
you disagree among yourselves as to what 
that substitute shall be. You are divided on 
new propositions and plans, but you are 
unanimous in rejecting and denouncing the 
old policy of the fathers. Some of you are 
for reviving the foreign slave-trade ; some 
for a congressional slave code for the Terri- 
tories; some for Congress forbidding the 
Territories to prohibit slavery within their 
limits; some for maintaining slavery in the 
Territories through the judiciary; some for 
the " gur-reat pur-rinciple " that " if one man 
would enslave another, no third man should 
object," fantastically called " popular sover- 
eignty " ; but never a man among you is in 
favor of Federal prohibition of slavery in 
Federal Territories, according to the prac- 
tice of " our fathers who framed the govern- 
ment under which we live." Not one of all 

[144] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

your various plans can show a precedent or 
an advocate in the century within which 
our government originated. Consider, then, 
whether your claim of conservatism for your- 
selves, and your charge of destructiveness 
against us, are based on the most clear and 
stable foundations. 

Again, you say we have made the slavery 
question more prominent than it formerly 
was. We deny it. We admit that it is more 
prominent, but we deny that we made it so. 
It was not we, but you, who discarded the old 
policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still 
resist, your innovation; and thence comes 
the greater prominence of the question. 
Would you have that question reduced to its 
former proportions ? Go back to that old 
policy. What has been will be again, under 
the same conditions. If you would have the 
peace of the old times, readopt the precepts 
and policy of the old times. 

You charge that we stir up insurrections 
among your slaves. We deny it ; and what is 
your proof? Harper's Ferry! John Brown! 
John Brown was no Republican; and you 
have failed to implicate a single Republican 
in his Harper's Ferry enterprise. If any 
member of our party is guilty in that matter 

[145] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

you know it, or you do not know it. If you 
do know it, you are inexcusable for not des- 
ignating the man and proving the fact. If 
you do not know it, you are inexcusable for 
asserting it, and especially for persisting in 
the assertion after you have tried and failed 
to make the proof. You need not be told 
that persisting in a charge which one does 
not know to be true, is simply malicious 
slander. ^ 

Some of you admit that no Republican 
designedly aided or encouraged the Harper's 
Ferry affair, but still insist that our doctrines 
and declarations necessarily lead to such 
results. We do not believe it. We know 
we hold no doctrine, and make no declara- 
tion, which were not held to and made by 
"our fathers who framed the government 
under which we live." You never dealt 
fairly by us in relation to this affair. When 
it occurred, some important State elections 
were near at hand, and you were in evident 
glee with the belief that, by charging the 
blame upon us, you could get an advantage 
of us in those elections. The elections came, 
and your expectations were not quite ful- 
filled. Every Republican man knew that, as 
to himself at least, your charge was a slander, 

[146] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

and he was not much inclined by it to cast 
his vote in your favor. Republican doctrines 
and declarations are accompanied with a 
continual protest against any interference 
whatever with your slaves, or with you about 
your slaves. Surely this does not encourage 
them to revolt. True, we do, in common 
with *' our fathers who framed the govern- 
ment under which we live," declare our 
belief that slavery is wrong ; but the slaves 
do not hear us declare even this. For any- 
thing we say or do, the slaves would scarcely 
know there is a Republican party. I believe 
they would not, in fact, generally know it 
but for your misrepresentations of us in their 
hearing. In your political contests among 
yourselves, each faction charges the other 
with sympathy with Black Republicanism; 
and then, to give point to the charge, defines 
Black Republicanism to simply be insurrec- 
tion, blood, and thunder among the slaves. 

Slave insurrections are no more common 
now than they were before the Republican 
party was organized. What induced the 
Southampton insurrection, twenty-eight years 
ago, in which at least three times as many 
lives were lost as at Harper's Ferry? You 
can scarcely stretch your very elastic fancy 

[147] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

to the conclusion that Southampton was " got 
up by Black Republicanism." In the present 
state of things in the United States, I do not 
think a general, or even a very extensive, 
slave insurrection is possible. The indis- 
pensable concert of action cannot be attained. 
The slaves have no means of rapid com- 
munication; nor can incendiary freemen, 
black or white, supply it. The explosive 
materials are everywhere in parcels; but 
there neither are, nor can be supplied, the 
indispensable connecting trains. 

Much is said by Southern people about 
the affection of slaves for their masters and 
mistresses ; and a part of it, at least, is true. 
A plot for an uprising could scarcely be de- 
vised and communicated to twenty indi- 
viduals before some one of them, to save the 
life of a favorite master or mistress, would 
divulge it. This is the rule; and the slave 
revolution in Hayti was not an exception to 
it, but a case occurring under peculiar cir- 
cumstances. The gunpowder plot of British 
history, though not connected with slaves, 
was more in point. In that case only about 
twenty were admitted to the secret ; and yet 
one of them, in his anxiety to save a friend, 
betrayed the plot to that friend, and, by con- 

[148] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

sequence, averted the calamity. Occasional 
poisonings from the kitchen and open or 
stealthy assassinations in the field, and local 
revolts extending to a score or so, will con- 
tinue to occur as the natural results of slav- 
ery; but no general insurrection of slaves, 
as I think, can happen in this country for a 
long time. Whoever much fears, or much 
hopes, for such an event, will be alike disap- 
pointed. 

In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered 
many years ago, " It is still in our power to 
direct the process of emancipation and de- 
portation peaceably, and in such slow de- 
grees, as that the evil will wear off insensi- 
bly ; and their places he, pari passu, filled up 
by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, 
it is left to force itself on, human nature 
must shudder at the prospect held up." 

Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do 
I, that the power of emancipation is in the 
Federal Government. He spoke of Virginia ; 
and, as to the power of emancipation, I 
speak of the slaveholding States only. The 
Federal Government, however, as we insist, 
has the power of restraining the extension of 
the institution — the power to insure that a. 
slave insurrection shall never occur on any 

[149] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

American soil which is now free from 
slavery. 

John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was 
not a slave insurrection. It was an attempt 
by white men to get up a revolt among 
slaves, in which the slaves refused to partici- 
pate. In fact it was so absurd that the 
slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly 
enough it could not succeed. That affair, 
in its philosophy, corresponds with the many 
attempts, related in history, at the assassi- 
nation of kings and emperors. An enthu- 
siast broods over the oppression of a people 
till he fancies himself commissioned by 
Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the 
attempt, which ends in little else than his 
own execution. Orsini's attempt on Louis 
Napoleon and John Brown's attempt at 
Harper's Ferry were, in their philosophy, 
precisely the same. The eagerness to cast 
blame on old England in the one case and 
on New England in the other, does not dis- 
prove the sameness of the two things. 

And how much would it avail you, if you 
could, by the use of John Brown, Helper's 
Book, and the like, break up the Republican 
organization } Human action can be modi- 
fied to some extent, but human nature can- 

[150] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

not be changed. There is a judgment and a 
feeling against slavery in this nation which 
cast at least a million and a half of votes. 
You cannot destroy that judgment and feel- 
ing — that sentiment — by breaking up the 
political organization which rallies around it. 
You can scarcely scatter and disperse an 
army which has been formed into order in 
the face of your heaviest fire; but if you 
could, how much would you gain by forcing 
the sentiment which created it out of the 
peaceful channel of the ballot-box into some 
other channel ? What would that other chan- 
nel probably be ? Would the number of John 
Browns be lessened or enlarged by the opera- 
tion ? 

But you will break up the Union rather 
than submit to a denial of your constitu- 
tional rights. 

That has a somewhat reckless sound ; but 
it would be palliated, if not fully justified, 
were we proposing, by the mere force of 
numbers, to deprive you of some right plainly 
written down in the Constitution. But we 
are proposing no such thing. 

When you make these declarations, you 
have a specific and well-understood allusion 
to an assumed constitutional right of yours 

[151] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

to take slaves into the Federal Territories, 
and to hold them there as property. But no 
such right is specifically written in the Con- 
stitution. That instrument is literally silent 
about any such right. We, on the contrary, 
deny that such a right has any existence in 
the Constitution, even by implication. 

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that 
you will destroy the government, unless you 
be allowed to construe and force the Con- 
stitution as you please, on all points in dis- 
pute between you and us. You will rule or 
ruin in all events. 

This, plainly stated, is your language. 
Perhaps you will say the Supreme Court has 
decided the disputed constitutional question 
in your favor. Not quite so. But waiving 
the lawyer's distinction between dictum and 
decision, the court has decided the question 
for you in a sort of way. The court has 
substantially said, it is your constitutional 
right to take slaves into the Federal Terri- 
tories, and to hold them there as property. 
When I say the decision was made in a sort 
of way, I mean it was made in a divided 
court, by a bare majority of the judges, and 
they not quite agreeing with one another in 
the reasons for making it; that it is so made 

[152] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

that its avowed supporters disagree with one 
another about its meaning, and that it was 
mainly based upon a mistaken statement of 
fact — the statement in the opinion that 
" the right of property in a slave is distinctly 
and expressly affirmed in the Constitution." 

An inspection of the Constitution will 
show that the right of property in a slave is 
not " distinctly and expressly affirmed " in it. 
Bear in mind, the judges do not pledge their 
judicial opinion that such right is impliedly 
affirmed in the constitution ; but they pledge 
their veracity that it is " distinctly and ex- 
pressly " affirmed there — " distinctly," that 
is, not mingled with anything else — " ex- 
pressly," that is, in words meaning just that, 
without the aid of any inference, and sus- 
ceptible of no other meaning. 

If they had only pledged their judicial 
opinion that such right is affirmed in the 
instrument by implication, it would be open 
to others to show that neither the word 
" slave " nor " slavery " is to be found in the 
Constitution, nor the word "property" even, 
in any connection with language alluding to 
the things slave, or slavery ; and that wher- 
ever in that instrument the slave is alluded 
to, he is called a " person " ; and wherever 

[153] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

his master's legal right in relation to him is 
alluded to, it is spoken of as "service or 
labor which may be due " — as a debt paya- 
ble in service or labor. Also it would be 
open to show, by contemporaneous history, 
that this mode of alluding to slaves and 
slavery, instead of speaking of them, was 
employed on purpose to exclude from the 
Constitution the idea that there could be 
property in man. 

To show all this is easy and certain. 

When this obvious mistake of the judges 
shall be brought to their notice, is it not 
reasonable to expect that they will withdraw 
the mistaken statement, and reconsider the 
conclusion based upon it? 

And then it is to be remembered that " our 
fathers who framed the government under 
which we live" — the men who made the 
Constitution — decided this same constitu- 
tional question in our favor long ago : de- 
cided it without division among themselves 
when making the decision ; without division 
among themselves about the meaning of it 
after it was made, and, so far as any evidence 
is left, without basing it upon any mistaken 
statement of facts. 

Under all these circumstances, do you 

[154] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

really feel yourselves justified to break up 
this government unless such a court decision 
as yours is shall be at once submitted to as 
a conclusive and final rule of political action ? 
But you will not abide the election of a Re- 
publican president ! In that supposed event, 
you say, you will destroy the Union; and 
then, you say, the great crime of having de- 
stroyed it will be upon us ! That is cool. 
A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and 
mutters through his teeth, " Stand and de- 
liver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be 
a murderer! " 

To be sure, what the robber demanded of 
me — my money — was my own; and I had 
a clear right to keep it ; but it was no more 
my own than my vote is my own ; and the 
threat of death to me, to extort my money, 
and the threat of destruction to the Union, 
to extort my vote, can scarcely be distin- 
guished in principle. 

A few words now to Republicans. It is 
exceedingly desirable that all parts of this 
great Confederacy shall be at peace and in 
harmony one with another. Let us Repub- 
licans do our part to have it so. Even 
though much provoked, let us do nothing 
through passion and ill temper. Even 

[155] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

though the Southern people will not so 
much as listen to us, let us calmly consider 
their demands, and yield to them if, in our 
deliberate view of our duty, we possibly can. 
Judging by all they say and do, and by the 
subject and nature of their controversy with 
us, let us determine, if we can, what will 
satisfy them. 

Will they be satisfied if the Territories be 
unconditionally surrendered to them? We 
know they will not. In all their present 
complaints against us, the Territories are 
scarcely mentioned. Invasions and insur- 
rections are the rage now. Will it satisfy 
them if, in the future, we have nothing to do 
with invasions and insurrections } We know 
it will not. We so know, because we know 
we never had anything to do with invasions 
and insurrections ; and yet this total abstain- 
ing does not exempt us from the charge and 
the denunciation. 

The question recurs. What will satisfy 
them.f* Simply this: we must not only let 
them alone, but we must somehow convince 
them that we do let them alone. This, we 
know by experience, is no easy task. We 
have been so trying to convince them from 
the very beginning of our organization, but 

[156] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

with no success. In all our platforms and 
speeches we have constantly protested our 
purpose to let them alone ; but this has had 
no tendency to convince them. Alike un- 
availing to convince them is the fact that 
they have never detected a man of us in any 
attempt to disturb them. 

These natural and apparently adequate 
means all failing, what will convince them.f^ 
This, and this only : cease to call slavery 
wrong, and join them in calling it right. 
And this must be done thoroughly — done 
in acts as well as in words. Silence will not 
be tolerated — we must place ourselves avow- 
edly with them. Senator Douglas's new 
sedition law must be enacted and enforced, 
suppressing all declarations that slavery is 
wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, 
in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest 
and return their fugitive slaves with greedy 
pleasure. We must pull down our free- 
State constitutions. The whole atmosphere 
must be disinfected from all taint of opposi- 
tion to slavery, before they will cease to be- 
lieve that all their troubles proceed from us. 

I am quite aware they do not state their 
case precisely in this way. Most of them 
would probably say to us, " Let us alone; 

[157] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

do nothing to us, and say what you please 
about slavery." But we do let them alone, — 
have never disturbed them, — so that, after 
all, it is what we say which dissatisfies them. 
They will continue to accuse us of doing, 
until we cease saying. 

I am also aware they have not as yet in 
terms demanded the overthrow of our free- 
State constitutions. Yet those constitutions 
declare the wrong of slavery with more sol- 
emn emphasis than do all other sayings 
against it; and when all these other sayings 
shall have been silenced, the overthrow of 
these constitutions will be demanded, and 
nothing be left to resist the demand. It is 
nothing to the contrary that they do not 
demand the whole of this just now. De- 
manding what they do, and for the reason 
they do, they can voluntarily stop nowhere 
short of this consummation. Holding, as 
they do, that slavery is morally right and 
socially elevating, they cannot cease to de- 
mand a full national recognition of it as a 
legal right and a social blessing. 

Nor can we justifiably withhold this on 
any ground save our conviction that slavery 
is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, 
acts, laws, and constitutions against it are 

[158] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

themselves wrong, and should be silenced 
and swept away. If it is right, we cannot 
justly object to its nationality — its uni- 
versality; if it is wrong, they cannot justly 
insist upon its extension — its enlargement. 
All they ask we could readily grant, if we 
thought slavery right ; all we ask they could 
as readily grant, if they thought it wrong. 
Their thinking it right and our thinking it 
wrong is the precise fact upon which 
depends the whole controversy. Thinking 
it right, as they do, they are not to blame 
for desiring its full recognition as being 
right ; but thinking it wrong, as we do, can 
we yield to them? Can we cast our votes 
with their view, and against our own ? In 
view of our moral, social, and political re- 
sponsibilities, can we do this ? 

Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet 
afford to let it alone where it is, because that 
much is due to the necessity arising from 
its actual presence in the nation; but can we, 
while our votes will prevent it, allow it to 
spread into the national Territories, and to 
overrun us here in these free States ? If 
our sense of duty forbids this, then let us 
stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. 
Let us be diverted by none of those sophis- 

[159] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

tical contrivances wherewith we are so indus- 
triously plied and belabored — contrivances 
such as groping for some middle ground 
between the right and the wrong: vain as 
the search for a man who should be neither 
a living man nor a dead man ; such as a policy 
of " don't care " on a question about which 
all true men do care; such as Union appeals 
beseeching true Union men to yield to Dis- 
unionists, reversing the divine rule, and 
calling, not the sinners, but the righteous, 
to repentance ; such as invocations to Wash- 
ington, imploring men to unsay what Wash- 
ington said and undo what Washington did. 
Neither let us be slandered from our 
duty by false accusations against us, nor 
frightened from it by menaces of destruction 
to the government, nor of dungeons to our- 
selves. Let us have faith that right makes 
might, and in that faith let us to the end 
dare to do our duty as we understand it. 



[160] 



Lincoln's 
Inaugurals 



First Inaugural Address. 
March 4, 1861. 
Fellow-Citizens of the United States : 

IN compliance with a custom as old as 
the government itself, I appear before 
you to address you briefly, and to take, 
in your presence, the oath prescribed by the 
Constitution of the United States to be taken 
by the President before he enters on the 
execution of his office. 

I do not consider it necessary, at present, 
for me to discuss those matters of admin- 
istration about which there is no special 
anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems 
to exist among the people of the southern 
states, that, by the accession of a Republican 
administration, their property and their 
peace and personal security are to be en- 
dangered. There has never been any rea- 
sonable cause for such apprehension. In- 

[161] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

deed, the most ample evidence to the con- 
trary has all the while existed and been open 
to their inspection. It is found in nearly all 
the published speeches of him who now ad- 
dresses you. I do but quote from one of those 
speeches, when I declare that " I have no 
purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere 
with the institution of slavery in the states 
where it exists." I believe I have no lawful 
right to do so ; and I have no inclination to 
do so. Those who nominated and elected 
me did so with the full knowledge that I had 
made this, and made many similar decla- 
rations, and had never recanted them. And, 
more than this, they placed in the platform, 
for my acceptance, and as a law to them- 
selves and to me, the clear and emphatic 
resolution which I now read: 

''Resolved, That the maintenance invio- 
late of the rights of the states, and es- 
pecially the right of each state to order 
and control its own domestic institutions 
according to its own judgment exclusively, 
is essential to that balance of power on 
which the perfection and endurance of 
our political fabric depend; and we de- 
nounce the lawless invasion . by armed 
force of the soil of any state or territory, no 

[162] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

matter under what pretext, as among the 
gravest of crimes." 

I now reiterate these sentiments ; and in 
doing so I only press upon the public 
attention the most conclusive evidence of 
which the case is susceptible, that the prop- 
erty, peace, and security of no section 
are to be in anywise endangered by the 
now incoming administration. 

I add, too, that all the protection which, 
consistently with the Constitution and the 
laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given 
to all the states when lawfully demanded, for 
whatever cause, as cheerfully to one section 
as to another. 

There is much controversy about the 
delivering up of fugitives from service or 
labor. The clause I now read is as plainly 
written in the Constitution as any other of 
its provisions: 

" No person held to service or labor in one 
state under the laws thereof, escaping into 
another, shall, in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such 
service or labor, but shall be delivered up on 
claim of the party to whom such service or 
labor may be due." 

It is scarcely questioned that this provision 

[163] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



was intended by those who made it for the 
reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; 
and the intention of the law-giver is the law. 

All members of Congress swear their 
support to the whole Constitution — to this 
provision as well as any other. To the propo- 
sition, then, that slaves whose cases come 
within the terms of this clause " shall be de- 
livered up," their oaths are unanimous. Now, 
if they would make the effort in good 
temper, could they not, with nearly equal 
unanimity, frame and pass a law by means 
of which to keep good that unanimous oath ? 

There is some difference of opinion 
whether this clause should be enforced by 
national or by state authority; but surely 
that difference is not a very material one. 
If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of 
but little consequence to him or to others by 
which authority it is done ; and should any 
one, in any case, be content that this oath 
shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial 
controversy as to how it shall be kept ? 

Again, in any law upon this subject, 
ought not all the safeguards of liberty known 
in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be 
introduced, so that a free man be not, in any 
case, surrendered as a slave ? And might it 

[164] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

not be well at the same time to provide by 
law for the enforcement of that clause in the 
Constitution which guarantees that "the 
citizens of each state shall be entitled to 
all the privileges and immunities of citizens 
in the several states?" 

I take the official oath to-day with no men- 
tal reservations, and with no purpose to 
construe the Constitution or laws by any 
hypercritical rules; and while I do not 
choose now to specify particular acts of Con- 
gress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest 
that it will be much safer for all, both in 
official and private stations, to conform to 
and abide by all those acts which stand un- 
repealed, than to violate any of them, trust- 
ing to find impunity in having them held to 
be unconstitutional. 

It is seventy-two years since the first in- 
auguration of a President under our National 
Constitution. During that period, fifteen 
different and very distinguished citizens 
have in succession administered the execu- 
tive branch of the Government. They have 
conducted it through many perils, and gen- 
erally with great success. Yet, with all this 
scope for precedent, I now enter upon the 
same task, for the brief constitutional term 

[165] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of four years, under great and peculiar diffi- 
culties. 

A disruption of the Federal Union, here- 
tofore only menaced, is now formidably at- 
tempted. I hold that in the contemplation 
of universal law and of the Constitution, the 
union of these states is perpetual. Perpe- 
tuity is implied, if not expressed, in the 
fundamental law of all national governments. 
It is safe to assert that no government 
proper ever had a provision in its organic 
law for its own termination. Continue to 
execute all the express provisions of our 
National Constitution, and the Union will 
endure forever, it being impossible to de- 
stroy it except by some action not provided 
for in the instrument itself. 

Again, if the United States be not a gov- 
ernment proper, but an association of states 
in the nature of a contract merely, can it, as 
a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than 
all the parties who made \t} One party to 
a contract may violate it — break it, so to 
speak ; but does it not require all to lawfully 
rescind it 1 Descending from these general 
principles, we find the proposition that in 
legal contemplation the Union is perpetual, 
confirmed by the history of the Union itself. 

[i66] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

The Union is much older than the Con- 
stitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Ar- 
ticles of Association in 1 774. It was matured 
and continued in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence in 1776. It was further matured, 
and the faith of all the then thirteen states 
expressly plighted and engaged that it should 
be perpetual, by the Articles of the Confed- 
eration, in 1778; and finally, in 1787, one of 
the declared objects for ordaining and estab- 
lishing the Constitution was to form a more 
perfect Union. But if the destruction of 
the Union by one or by a part only of the 
states be lawfully possible, the Union is less 
perfect than before, the Constitution having 
lost the vital element of perpetuity. 

It follows from these views that no state, 
upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get 
out of the Union ; that resolves and ordi- 
nances to that effect are legally void; and 
that acts of violence within any state or states 
against the authority of the United States 
are insurrectionary or revolutionary, accord- 
ingr to circumstances. 

I therefore consider that, in view of the 
Constitution and the laws, the Union is un- 
broken, and, to the extent of my ability, I 
shall take care, as the Constitution itself ex- 

ti67] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

pressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the 
Union shall be faithfully executed in all the 
states. Doing this, which I deem to be only 
a simple duty on my part, I shall perfectly 
perform it, so far as is practicable, unless my 
rightful masters, the American people, shall 
withhold the requisition, or in some author- 
itative manner direct the contrary. 

I trust this will not be regarded as a men- 
ace, but only as the declared purpose of the 
Union that it will constitutionally defend 
and maintain itself. 

In doing this there need be no bloodshed 
or violence, and there shall be none unless 
it is forced upon the national authority. 

The power confided to me will be used to 
hold^ occupy^ and possess the property and 
places belonging to the GovernTnent, and col- 
lect the duties and imposts ; but beyond 
what may be necessary for these objects 
there will be no invasion, no using of force 
against or among the people anywhere. 

Where hostility to the United States shall 
be so great and so universal as to prevent 
competent resident citizens from holding 
federal offices, there will be no attempt to 
force obnoxious strangers among the people 
that object. While strict legal right may 

[i68] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

exist of the government to enforce the exer- 
cise of these offices, the attempt to do so 
would be so irritating, and so nearly impracti- 
cable withal, that I deem it best to forego, 
for the time, the uses of such offices. 

The mails, unless repelled, will continue 
to be furnished in all parts of the Union. 

So far as possible, the people everywhere 
shall have that sense of perfect security 
which is most favorable to calm thought and 
reflection. 

The course here indicated will be followed, 
unless current events and experience shall 
show a modification or change to be proper; 
and in every case and exigency my best dis- 
cretion will be exercised according to the 
circumstances actually existing, and with a 
view and hope of a peaceful solution of the 
national troubles, and the restoration of fra- 
ternal sympathies and affections. 

That there are persons, in one section or 
another, who seek to destroy the Union at 
all events, and are glad of any pretext to do 
it, I will neither affirm nor deny. But if there 
be such, I need address no word to them. 

To those, however, who really love the 
Union, may I not speak, before entering 
upon so grave a matter as the destruction 

[169] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its 
memories, and its hopes? Would it not be 
well to ascertain why we do it ? Will you 
hazard so desperate a step, while any portion 
of the ills you fly from have no real exist- 
ence ? Will you, while the certain ills you 
fly to are greater than all the real ones you 
fly from ? Will you risk the commission of 
so fearful a mistake ? All profess to be con- 
tent in the Union if all constitutional rights 
can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any 
right, plainly written in the Constitution, 
has been denied ? I think not. Happily the 
human mind is so constituted that no party 
can reach to the audacity of doing this. 

Think, if you can, of a single instance in 
which a plainly-written provision of the Con- 
stitution has ever been denied. If, by the 
mere force of numbers, a majority should 
deprive a minority of any clearly-written 
constitutional right, it might, in a moral 
point of view, justify revolution; it certainly 
would if such right were a vital one. But 
such is not our case. 

All the vital rights of minorities and of 
individuals are so plainly assured to them by 
affirmations and negations, guarantees and 
prohibitions in the Constitution, that con- 

[170] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

troversies never arise concerning them. But 
no organic law can ever be framed with a 
provision specifically applicable to every 
question which may occur in practicable ad- 
ministration. No foresight can anticipate, nor 
any document of reasonable length contain, 
express provisions for all possible questions. 
Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered 
by national or by state authorities? The 
Constitution does not expressly say. Must 
Congress protect slavery in the Territories? 
The Constitution does not expressly say. 
From questions of this class spring all our 
constitutional controversies, and we divide 
upon them into majorities and minorities. 

If the minority will not acquiesce, the 
majority must, or the Government must 
cease. There is no alternative for continu- 
ing the Government but acquiescence on the 
one side or the other. If a minority in such 
a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they 
make a precedent which, in turn, will ruin 
and divide them, for a minority of their own 
will secede from them whenever a majority 
refuses to be controlled by such a minority. 
For instance, why may not any portion of a 
new Confederacy, a year or two hence, arbi- 
trarily secede again, precisely as portions of the 

[171] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

present Union now claim to secede from it? 
All who cherish disunion sentiments are 
now being educated to the exact temper of 
doing this. Is there such perfect identity 
of interests among the states to compose a 
new Union as to produce harmony only, and 
prevent renewed secession ? Plainly, the 
central idea of secession is the essence of 
anarchy. 

A majority held in restraint by constitu- 
tional check and limitation, and always 
changing easily with deliberate changes of 
popular opinions and sentiments, is the only 
true sovereign of a free people. Whoever 
rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or 
to despotism. Unanimity is impossible; the 
rule of a minority, as a permanent arrange- 
ment, is wholly inadmissible. So that, re- 
jecting the majority principle, anarchy or 
despotism, in some form, is all that is left. 

I do not forget the position assumed by 
some that constitutional questions are to be 
decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I 
deny that such decisions must be binding in 
any case upon the parties to a suit, as to the 
object of that suit, while they are also enti- 
tled to a very high respect and consideration 
in all parallel cases by all other departments 

[172] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of the Government; and while it is obvi- 
ously possible that such decision may be 
erroneous in any given case, still the evil 
effect following it, being limited to that par- 
ticular case, with the chance that it may be 
overruled and never become a precedent for 
other cases, can better be borne than could 
the evils of a different practice. 

At the same time the candid citizen must 
confess that if the policy of the Government 
upon the vital question affecting the whole 
people is to be irrevocably fixed by the de- 
cisions of the Supreme Court, the instant 
they are made, as in ordinary litigation be- 
tween parties in personal actions, the people 
will have ceased to be their own masters, 
unless having to that extent practically re- 
signed their Government into the hands of 
that eminent tribunal. 

Nor is there in this view any assault upon 
the Court or the Judges. It is a duty from 
which they may not shrink, to decide cases 
properly brought before them ; and it is no 
fault of theirs if others seek to turn their 
decisions to political purposes. One section 
of our country believes slavery is right and 
ought to be extended, while the other be- 
lieves it is wrong and ought not to be ex- 

[173] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

tended ; and this is the only substantial dis- 
pute ; and the fugitive slave clause of the 
Constitution, and the law for the suppres- 
sion of the foreign slave-trade, are each as 
well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever 
be in a community where the moral sense of 
the people imperfectly supports the law it- 
self. The great body of the people abide by 
the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a 
few break over in each. This, I think, can- 
not be perfectly cured, and it would be worse 
in both cases after the separation of the sec- 
tions than before. The foreign slave-trade, 
now imperfectly suppressed, would be ulti- 
mately revived, without restriction, in one 
section ; while fugitive slaves, now only par- 
tially surrendered, would not be surrendered 
at all by the other. 

Physically speaking, we cannot separate; 
we cannot remove our respective sections 
from each other, nor build an impassable 
wall between them. A husband and wife 
may be divorced, and go out of the presence 
and beyond the reach of each other, but the 
different parts of our country cannot do this. 
They cannot but remain face to face ; and 
intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must 
continue between them. Is it possible, then, 

[174] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

to make that intercouse more advantageous 
or more satisfactory after separation than 
before? Can aliens make treaties easier 
than friends can make laws? Can treaties 
be more faithfully enforced between aliens 
than laws can among friends ? Suppose you 
go to war, you cannot fight always; and 
when, after much loss on both sides and no 
gain on either, you cease fighting, the identi- 
cal questions as to terms of intercouse are 
again upon you. 

This country, with its institutions, belongs 
to the people who inhabit it. Whenever 
they shall grow weary of the existing gov- 
ernment, they can exercise their constitution- 
al right of amending, or their revolutionary 
right to dismember or overthrow it. I can- 
not be ignorant of the fact that many worthy 
and patriotic citizens are desirous of having 
the National Constitution amended. While 
I make no recommendation of amendment, 
I fully recognize the full authority of the 
people over the whole subject, to be exercised 
in either of the modes prescribed in the 
instrument itself, and I should, under exist- 
ing circumstances, favor, rather than oppose, 
a fair opportunity being afforded the people 
to act upon it. 

[175] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

I will venture to add that to me the con- 
vention mode seems preferable, in that it 
allows amendments to originate with the 
people themselves, instead of only permitting 
them to take or reject propositions originated 
by others not especially chosen for the pur- 
pose, and which might not be precisely such 
as they would wish either to accept or 
refuse. I understand that a proposed amend- 
ment to the Constitution (which amendment, 
however, I have not seen) has passed Con- 
gress, to the effect that the Federal Govern- 
ment shall never interfere with the domestic 
institutions of states, including that of 
persons held to service. To avoid mis- 
construction of what I have said, I depart 
from my purpose not to speak of particular 
amendments, so far as to say that, holding 
such a provision to now be implied constitu- 
tional law, I have no objection to its being 
made express and irrevocable. 

The Chief Magistrate derives all his 
authority from the people, and they have 
conferred none upon him to fix the terms for 
the separation of the states. The people 
themselves, also, can do this if they choose, 
but the Executive, as such, has nothing to 
do with it. His duty is to administer the 

[176] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

present government as it came to his hands, 
and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his 
successor. Why should there not be a 
patient confidence in the ultimate justice of 
the people ? Is there any better or equal 
hope in the world? In our present dif- 
ferences is either party without faith of being 
in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of 
nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be 
on your side of the North, or on yours of the 
South, that truth and that justice will surely 
prevail by the judgment of this great 
tribunal, the American people. By the 
frame of the Government under which we 
live, this same people have wisely given their 
public servants but little power for mischief, 
and have with equal wisdom provided for the 
return of that little to their own hands at 
very short intervals. While the people re- 
tain their virtue and vigilance, no adminis- 
tration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, 
can very seriously injure the Government in 
the short space of four years. 

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly 
and well upon this whole subject. Nothing 
valuable can be lost by taking time. 

If there be an object to hurry any of you, 
in hot haste, to a step which you would 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

never take deliberately, that object will be 
frustrated by taking time ; but no good 
object can be frustrated by it. 

Such of you as are now dissatisfied still 
have the old Constitution unimpaired, and 
on the sensitive point, the laws of your own 
framing under it; while the new adminis- 
tration will have no immediate power, if it 
would, to change either. 

If it were admitted that you who are dis- 
satisfied hold the right side in the dispute, 
there is still no single reason for precipitate 
action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christian- 
ity, and a firm reliance on Him who has 
never yet forsaken this favored land, are 
still competent to adjust, in the best way, all 
our present difficulties. 

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow- 
countrymen, and not in mine, is the momen- 
tous issue of civil war. The Government 
will not assail you. 

You can have no conflict without being 
yourselves the aggressors. You have no 
oath registered in heaven to destroy the 
Government, while I shall have the most 
solemn one to "preserve, protect, and de- 
fend " it. 

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, 

[178] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

but friends. We must not be enemies. 
Though passion may have strained, it must 
not break, our bonds of affection. 

The mystic cords of memory, stretching 
from every battlefield and patriot grave to 
every living heart and hearthstone all over 
this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of 
the Union, when again touched, as surely 
they will be, by the better angels of our 
nature. 

Second Inaugural Address. 
March 4, 1865. 

Fellow- Cou7i try men \ At this second ap- 
pearing to take the oath of the Presidential 
office, there is less occasion for an extended 
address than there was at the first. Then a 
statement somewhat in detail of a course to 
be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. 
Now, at the expiration of four years, during 
which public declarations have been con- 
stantly called forth on every point and phase 
of the great contest which still absorbs the 
attention and engrosses the energies of the 
nation, little that is new could be presented. 

The progress of our arms, upon which all 
else chiefly depends, is as well known to the 

[179] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

public as to myself ; and it is, I trust, rea- 
sonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. 
With high hope for the future, no prediction 
in regard to it is ventured. 

On the occasion corresponding to this, 
four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously 
directed to an impending civil war. All 
dreaded it ; all sought to avoid it. While the 
inaugural address was being delivered from 
this place, devoted altogether to saving the 
Union without war, insurgent agents were 
in the city seeking to destroy it without war 
— seeking to dissolve the Union and divide 
the effects by negotiation. Both parties dep- 
recated war; but one of them would make 
war rather than let the nation survive, and 
the other would accept war rather than let it 
perish ; and the war came. 

One eighth of the whole population were 
colored slaves, not distributed generally over 
the Union, but localized in the southern 
part of it. These slaves constituted a pecul- 
iar and powerful interest. All knew that 
this interest was somehow the cause of the 
war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend 
this interest, was the object for which the 
insurgents would rend the Union even by 
war, while the government claimed no right 

[i8o] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

to do more than to restrict the territorial 
enlargement of it. 

Neither party expected for the war the 
magnitude or the duration which it has 
already attained. Neither anticipated that 
the cause of the conflict might cease with, or 
even before, the conflict itself should cease. 
Each looked for an easier triumph, and a 
result less fundamental and astoundinor. 

Both read the same Bible and pray to the 
same God, and each invokes his aid against 
the other. It may seem strange that any 
men should dare to ask a just God's assist- 
ance in wringing their bread from the sweat 
of other men's faces ; but let us judge not, 
that we be not judged. The prayers of both 
could not be answered. That of neither has 
been answered fully. The Almighty has his 
own purposes. " Woe unto the world be- 
cause of offenses, for it must needs be that 
offenses come ; but woe to that man by whom 
the offense cometh." If we shall suppose 
that American slavery is one of these offenses, 
which in the providence of God must needs 
come, but which, having continued through 
his appointed time, he now wills to remove, 
and that he gives to both North and South 
this terrible war as the woe due to those by 

[i8i] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

whom the offense came, shall we discern 
therein any departure from those divine 
attributes which the believers in a living 
God always ascribe to him? Fondly do 
we hope, fervently do we pray, that this 
mighty scourge of war may soon pass 
away. Yet, if God wills that it continue 
until all the wealth piled by the bondman's 
two hundred and fifty years of unrequited 
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 
blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with 
another drawn with the sword ; as was said 
three thousand years ago, so still it must be 
said, " The judgments of the Lord are true 
and righteous altogether." 

With malice toward none, with charity 
for all, with firmness in the right as God 
gives us to see the right, let us strive on to 
finish the work we are in, to bind up the 
nation's wounds, to care for him who shall 
have borne the battle and for his widow and 
orphans, to do all which may achieve and 
cherish a just and a lasting peace among 
ourselves and with all nations. 



[182] 



Proclamation of 
Emancipation 

January 7, i86j. 

WHEREAS, on the twenty-second 
day of September, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and sixty-two, a proclamation was 
issued by the President of the United 
States, containing, among other things, the 
following, to wdt: 

" That on the first day of January, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and sixty-three, all persons held as 
slaves within any state or designated part of 
a state, the people whereof shall then be in 
rebellion against the United States, shall be 
then, thenceforward, and forever free ; and 
the Executive Government of the United 
States, including the military and naval au- 
thority thereof, will recognize and maintain 
the freedom of such persons, and will do no 
act or acts to repress such persons or any of 
them, in any efforts they may make for their 
actual freedom. 

" That the Executive will, on the first day of 

[183] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate 
the states and parts of states, if any, in which 
the people thereof respectively shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States ; and 
the fact that any state, or the people thereof, 
shall on that day be in good faith represented 
in the Congress of the United States, by 
members chosen thereto at elections wherein 
a majority of the qualified voters of such 
state shall have participated, shall, in the 
absence of strong countervailing testimony, 
be deemed conclusive evidence that such 
state, and the people thereof, are not then in 
rebellion against the United States." 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, 
President of the United States, by virtue of 
the power in me vested as Commander-in- 
Chief of the army and navy of the United 
States in time of actual armed rebellion 
against the authority and government of the 
United States, and as a fit and necessary 
war measure for suppressing said rebellion, 
do, on this first day of January, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-three, and in accordance with my 
purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for 
the full period of one hundred days from the 
day first above mentioned, order and desig- 

[184] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

nate, as the states and parts of states wherein 
the people thereof respectively are this day 
in rebellion against the United States, the 
following, to wit: 

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the 
parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jeffer- 
son, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascen- 
sion, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, 
St. Marie, St. Martin, and Orleans, includ- 
ing the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, 
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, 
North Carolina, and Virginia (except the 
forty-eight counties designated as West Vir- 
ginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Ac- 
comac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, 
Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the 
cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which 
excepted parts are for the present left pre- 
cisely as if this proclamation were not issued. 

And, by virtue of the power and for the 
purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare 
that all persons held as slaves within said 
designated states and parts of states are and 
henceforth shall be free ; and that the Exec- 
utive Government of the United States, in- 
cluding the military and naval authorities 
thereof, w411 recognize and maintain the free- 
dom of said persons. 

[185] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so 
declared to be free, to abstain from all vio- 
lence, unless in necessary self-defense ; and 
I recommend to them that in all cases, when 
allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable 
wages. 

And I further declare and make known 
that such persons of suitable condition will 
be received into the armed service of the 
United States, to garrison forts, positions, 
stations, and other places, and to man ves- 
sels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to 
be an act of justice, warranted by the Con- 
stitution, upon military necessity, I invoke 
the considerate judgment of mankind and 
the gracious favor of Almighty God. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set 
my name, and caused the seal of the United 
States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington, this first 
day of January, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 

[l. s.] three, and of the Independence of the 
United States the eighty-seventh. 

By the President : Abraham Lincoln. 

William H. Seward, Secretary of State, 

[1 86] 




Lincoln's Gettys- 
burg Speech 

At the Dedication of the National Ceme- 
tery AT Gettysburg, Pa., November 
15, 1863. 

"FOURSCORE and seven yearn ago our 
fathers brought forth upon this con- 
tinent a new nation, conceived in 
liberty, and dedicated to the proposition 
that all men are created equal. Now we 
are engaged in a great civil war, testing 
whether that nation, or any nation so con- 
ceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 
We are met on a great battle-field of that 
war. We have come to dedicate a portion 
of that field as a final resting-place for 
those who here gave their lives that that 
nation might live. It is altogether fitting 
and proper that we should do this. But in 
a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot 
consecrate, we cannot hallovv^ this ground. 
The brave men, living and dead, who strug- 
gled here, have consecrated it far above our 

[187] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

power to add or detract. The world will lit- 
tle note, nor long remember, what we say here ; 
but it can never forget what they did here. 
It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated 
here to the unfinished work which they who 
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to 
the great task remaining before us, that from 
these honored dead we take increased devo- 
tion to that cause for which they gave the 
last full measure of devotion ; that we here 
highly resolve that these dead shall not have 
died in vain; that this nation, under God, 
shall have a new birth of freedom, and that 
government of the people, by the people, and 
for the people, shall not perish from the 
earth. 



[1 88] 



Webster's Bunker 
Hill Speech 

At the Laying of the Corner Stone of 
THE Bunker Hill Monument at 
Charlestown, Mass., June 17, 1825.* 

THIS uncounted multitude before me 
and around me proves the feeling 
which the occasion has excited. 
These thousands of human faces, glowing 
with sympathy and joy, and from the impulses 
of a common gratitude turned reverently to 
heaven in this spacious temple of the firma- 
ment, proclaim that the day, the place, and 
the purpose of our assembling have made a 
deep impression on our hearts. 

If, indeed, there be anything in local 
association fit to affect the mind of man, we 
need not strive to repress the emotions 
which agitate us here. We are among the 
sepulchers of our fathers. We are on 
ground distinguished by their valor, their 

*From the Works of Daniel Webster, published by Little, 
Brown & Co., 1851, Boston, 

[189] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

constancy, and the shedding of their blood. 
We are here, not to fix an uncertain date in 
our annals, nor to draw into notice an 
obscure and unknown spot. If our humble 
purpose had never been conceived, if we our- 
selves had never been born, the 17th of June, 
1775, would have been a day on which all 
subsequent history would have poured its 
light, and the eminence where we stand a 
point of attraction to the eyes of successive 
ofenerations. But we are Americans. We 
live in what may be called the early age of 
this great continent ; and we know that our 
posterity, through all time, are here to enjoy 
and suffer the allotments of humanity. We 
see before us a probable train of great events; 
we know that our own fortunes have been 
happily cast; and it is natural, therefore, that 
we should be moved by the contemplation of 
occurrences which have guided our destiny 
before many of us were born, and settled the 
condition in which we should pass that 
portion of our existence which God allow^s to 
men on earth. 

We do not read even of the discovery of 
this continent, without feeling something of a 
personal interest in the event ; without being 
reminded how much it has affected our own 

[190] 



THE A MERICAN IDEA 

fortunes and our own existence. It would 
be still more unnatural for us, therefore, 
than for others, to contemplate with 
unaffected minds that interesting, I may 
say that most touching and pathetic 
scene, when the great discoverer of America 
stood on the deck of his shattered bark, the 
shades of night falling on the sea, yet no 
man sleeping; tossed on the billows of an 
unknown ocean, yet the stronger billows of 
alternate hope and despair tossing his own 
troubled thoughts; extending forward his 
harassed frame, straining westward his 
anxious and eager eyes, till Heaven at last 
granted him a moment of rapture and ecstacy 
in blessing his vision with the sight of the 
unknown world. 

Nearer to our times, more closely con- 
nected with our fates, and therefore still 
more interesting to our feelings and affec- 
tions, is the settlement of our own country 
by colonists from England. We cherish 
every memorial of these worthy ancestors; 
we celebrate their patience and fortitude; 
we admire their daring enterprise ; we teach 
our children to venerate their piety ; and we 
are justly proud of being descended from 
men who have set the world an example of 

[191] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

founding civil institutions on the great and 
united principles of human freedom and hu- 
man knowledge. To us, their children, the 
story of their labors and sufferings can never 
be without interest. We shall not stand un- 
moved on the shore of Plymouth, while the 
sea continues to wash it ; nor will our breth- 
ren in another early and ancient Colony for- 
get the place of its first establishment, till 
their river shall cease to flow by it. No vigor 
of youth, no maturity of manhood, will lead 
the nation to forget the spots where its in- 
fancy was cradled and defended. 

But the great event in the history of the 
continent, which we are now met here to 
commemorate, that prodigy of modern times, 
at once the wonder and the blessing of the 
world, is the American Revolution. In a 
day of extraordinary prosperity and happi- 
ness, of high national honor, distinction, and 
power, we are brought together, in this 
place, by our love of country, by our admira- 
tion of exalted character, by our gratitude 
for signal services and patriotic devotion. 

The Society whose organ I am was formed 
for the purpose of rearing some honorable 
and durable monument to the memory of 
the early friends of American Independence. 

[192] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

They have thought that for this object no 
time could be more propitious than the pres- 
ent prosperous and peaceful period; that 
no place could claim preference over this 
memorable spot ; and that no day could be 
more auspicious to the undertaking, than 
the anniversary of the battle which was here 
fought. The foundation of that monument 
we have now laid. With solemnities suited 
to the occasion, with prayers to Almighty 
God for his blessing, and in the midst of 
this cloud of witnesses, we have begun the 
work. We trust it will be prosecuted, and 
that, springing from a broad foundation, ris- 
ing high in massive solidity and unadorned 
grandeur, it may remain as long as Heaven 
permits the works of man to last, a fit em- 
blem, both of the events in memory of which 
it is raised, and of the gratitude of those who 
have reared it. 

We know, indeed, that the record of illus- 
trious actions is most safely deposited in the 
universal remembrance of mankind. We 
know, that if we could cause this structure 
to ascend, not only till it reached the skies, 
but till it pierced them, its broad surfaces 
could still contain but part of that which, in 
an age of knowledge, hath already been 

[193] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

spread over the earth, and which history 
charges itself with making known to all fu- 
ture times. We know that no inscription 
on entablatures less broad than the earth 
itself can carry information of the events we 
commemorate where it has not already gone ; 
and that no structure, which shall not out- 
live the duration of letters and knowledge 
among men, can prolong the memorial. But 
our object is, by this edifice, to show our 
own deep sense of the value and importance 
of the achievements of our ancestors ; and, 
by presenting this work of gratitude to the 
eye, to keep alive similar sentiments, and to 
foster a constant regard for the principles of 
the Revolution. Human beings are com- 
posed, not of reason only, but of imagination 
also, and sentiment ; and that is neither 
wasted nor misapplied which is appropriated 
to the purpose of giving right direction to 
sentiments, and opening proper springs of 
feeling in the heart. Let it not be supposed 
that our object is to perpetuate national hos- 
tility, or even to cherish a mere military 
spirit. It is higher, purer, nobler. We con- 
secrate our work to the spirit of national in- 
dependence, and we wish that the light of 
peace may rest upon it forever. We rear a 

[194] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

memorial of our conviction of that unmeas- 
ured benefit which has been conferred on 
our own land, and of the happy influences 
which have been produced, by the same 
events, on the general interests of mankind. 
We come, as Americans, to mark a spot 
which must forever be dear to us and our 
posterity. We wish that whosoever, in all 
coming time, shall turn his eye hither, may 
behold that the place is not undistinguished 
where the first great battle of the Revolu- 
tion was fought. We wish that this struc- 
ture may proclaim the magnitude and im- 
portance of that event to every class and 
every age. We wish that infancy may learn 
the purpose of its erection from maternal 
lips, and that weary and withered age may 
behold it, and be solaced by the recollections 
which it suggests. We wish that labor may 
look up here, and be proud, in the midst of 
its toil. We wish that, in those days of dis- 
aster, which, as they come upon all nations, 
must be expected to come upon us also, 
desponding patriotism may turn its eyes 
hitherward, and be assured that the founda- 
tions of our national power are still strong. 
We wish that this column, rising towards 
heaven among the pointed spires of so many 

[195] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

temples dedicated to God, may contribute 
also to produce, in all minds, a pious feeling 
of dependence and gratitude. We wish, 
finally, that the last object to the sight of 
him who leaves his native shore, and the 
first to gladden him who revisits it, may be 
something which shall remind him of the 
liberty and the glory of his country. Let it 
rise ! let it rise, till it meet the sun in his 
coming ; let the earliest light of the morning 
gild it, and parting day linger and play on 
its summit. 

We live in a most extraordinary age. 
Events so various and so important that they 
might crowd and distinguish centuries are, 
in our times, compressed within the compass 
of a single life. When has it happened that 
history has had so much to record, in the 
same term of years, as since the 17th of 
June, 1775? Our own revolution, which, 
under other circumstances, might itself have 
been expected to occasion a war of half a 
century, has been achieved; twenty-four 
sovereign and independent States erected; 
and a general government established over 
them, so safe, so wise, so free, so practical, 
that we might well wonder its establishment 
should have been accomplished so soon, were 

[196] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

it not far the greater wonder that it 
should have been established at all. Two 
or three millions of people have been 
augmented to twelve, the great forests 
of the West prostrated beneath the arm 
of successful industry, and the dwellers 
on the banks of the Ohio and the Missis- 
sippi become the fellow-citizens and neigh- 
bors of those who cultivate the hills of 
New England. We have a commerce that 
leaves no sea unexplored ; navies which 
take no law from superior force ; revenues 
adequate to all the exigencies of government, 
almost without taxation; and peace with all 
nations, founded on equal rights and mutual 
respect. 

Europe, within the same period, has been 
agitated by a mighty revolution, which, while 
it has been felt in the individual condition 
and happiness of almost every man, has 
shaken to the center her political fabric, and 
dashed against one another thrones w^hich 
had stood tranquil for ages. On this, our 
continent, our own example has been 
followed, and colonies have sprung up to be 
nations. Unaccustomed sounds of liberty 
and free government have reached us from 
beyond the track of the sun ; and at this 

[197] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



moment the dominion of European power in 
this continent, from the place where we 
stand to the south pole, is annihilated for- 



ever.''^ 



In the mean time, both in Europe and 
America, such has been the general progress 
of knowledge, such the improvement in legis- 
lation, in commerce, in the arts, in letters, 
and, above all, in liberal ideas and the 
general spirit of the age, that the whole 
world seems changed. 

Yet, notwithstanding that this is but a 
faint abstract of the things which have 
happened since the day of the battle of 
Bunker Hill, we are but fifty years removed 
from it ; and we now stand here to enjoy all 
the blessings of our own condition, and to 
look abroad on the brightened prospects of 
the world, while we still have among us 
some of those who were active agents in the 
scenes of 1775, and who are now here, 
from every quarter of New England, to visit 
once more, and under circumstances so 
affecting, I had almost said so overwhelming, 
this renowned theater of their courage and 
patriotism. 

*The Monroe Doctrine was fresh in the minds of Mr. 
Webster and his hearers. 

[198] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

Venerable men ! you have come down to 
us from a former generation. Heaven has 
bounteously lengthened out your lives, that 
you might behold this joyous day. You are 
now where you stood fifty years ago, this 
very hour, with your brothers and your 
neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife 
for your country. Behold, how altered ! 
The same heavens are indeed over your 
heads; the same ocean rolls at your feet; 
but all else how changed! You hear now no 
roar of hostile cannon, you see no mixed 
volumes of smoke and flame rising from 
burning Charlestown. The ground strewed 
with the dead and the dying; the impetuous 
charge; the steady and successful repulse; 
the loud call to repeated assault ; the sum- 
moning of all that is manly to repeated 
resistance ; a thousand bosoms freely and 
fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of 
terror there may be in war and death ; — all 
these you have witnessed, but you witness 
them no more. All is peace. The heights 
of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, 
which you then saw filled with wives and 
children and countrymen in distress and ter- 
ror, and looking with unutterable emotions 
for the issue of the combat, have presented 

[199] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

you to-day with the sight of its whole happy 
population, come out to welcome and greet 
you with a universal jubilee. Yonder proud 
ships, by a felicity of position appropriately 
lying at the foot of this mount, and seeming 
fondly to cling around it, are not means of 
annoyance to you, but your country's own 
means of distinction and defense. All is 
peace; and God has granted you this sight 
of your country's happiness, ere you slumber 
in the grave. He has allowed you to behold 
and to partake the reward of your patriotic 
toils ; and he has allowed us, your sons and 
countrymen, to meet you here, and in the 
name of the present generation, in the name 
of your country, in the name of liberty, to 
thank you ! 

But, alas ! you are not all here ! Time 
and the sword have thinned your ranks. 
Prescott, Putnam, Stark, Brooks, Read, Pom- 
eroy. Bridge ! our eyes seek for you in vain 
amid this broken band. You are gathered 
to your fathers, and live only to your coun- 
try in her grateful remembrance and your 
own bright example. But let us not too 
much grieve, that you have met the common 
fate of men. You lived at least long enough 
to know that your work had been nobly and 

[200] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

successfully accomplished. You lived to see 
your country's independence established, and 
to sheathe your swords from war. On the 
light of Liberty you saw arise the light of 
Peace, like 

" another morn, 
Risen on mid-noon ; ' ' 

and the sky on which you closed your eyes 
was cloudless. 

But, ah ! Him ! the first great martyr in 
this great cause! Him! the premature vic- 
tim of his own self-devoting heart ! Him ! 
the head of our civil councils, and the des- 
tined leader of our military bands, whom 
nothing brought hither but the unquencha- 
ble fire of his own spirit! Him! cut off by 
Providence in the hour of overwhelming 
anxiety and thick gloom ; falling ere he saw 
the star of his country rise ; pouring out his 
generous blood like water, before he knew 
whether it would fertilize a land of freedom 
or of bondage ! — how shall I struggle with 
the emotions that stifle the utterance of thy 
name!* Our poor work may perish; but 
thine shall endure! This monument may 
moulder away; the solid ground it rests 

*Joseph Warren. 

[201] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

upon may sink down to a level with the sea; 
but thy memory shall not fail ! Whereso- 
ever among men a heart shall be found that 
beats to the transports of patriotism and 
liberty, its aspirations shall be to claim kin- 
dred with thy spirit. 

But the scene amidst which we stand 
does not permit us to confine our thoughts 
or our sympathies to those fearless spirits 
who hazarded or lost their lives on this con- 
secrated spot. We have the happiness to 
rejoice here in the presence of a most worthy 
representation of the survivors of the whole 
Revolutionary army. 

Veterans ! you are the remnant of many 
a well-fought field. You bring with you 
marks of honor from Trenton and Mon- 
mouth, from Yorktown, Camden, Benning- 
ton, and Saratoga. Veterans of half a 
century! when in your youthful days you 
put everything at hazard in your country's 
cause, good as that cause was, and sanguine 
as youth is, still your fondest hopes did not 
stretch onward to an hour like this ! At a 
period to which you could not reasonably 
have expected to arrive, at a moment of 
national prosperity such as you could never 
have foreseen, you are now met here to enjoy 

[202] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

the fellowship of old soldiers, and to receive 
the overflowings of a universal gratitude. 

But your agitated countenances and your 
heaving breasts inform me that even this is 
not an unmixed joy. I perceive that a tu- 
mult of contending feelings rushes upon you. 
The images of the dead, as well as the 
persons of the living, present themselves 
before you. The scene overwhelms you, and 
I turn from it. May the Father of all 
mercies smile upon your declining years, 
and bless them ! And when you shall here 
have exchanged your embraces, when you 
shall once more have pressed the hands 
which have been so often extended to give 
succor in adversity, or grasped in the exul- 
tation of victory, then look abroad upon this 
lovely land which your young valor defend- 
ed, and mark the happiness with which it is 
filled ; yea, look abroad upon the whole 
earth, and see what a name you have con- 
tributed to give to your country, and what 
a praise you have added to freedom, and then 
rejoice in the sympathy and gratitude whic>i 
beam upon your last days from the improved 
condition of mankind ! 

The occasion does not require of me any 
particular account of the battle of the 17th 

[203] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of June, 1775, nor any detailed narrative of 
the events which immediately preceded it. 
These are familiarly known to all. In the 
progress of the great and interesting contro- 
versy, Massachusetts and the town of Boston 
had become early and marked objects of the 
displeasure of the British Parliament. This 
had been manifested in the act for alter- 
ing the government of the Province, and in 
that for shutting up the port of Boston. 
Nothing sheds more honor on our early 
history, and nothing better shows how 
little the feelings and sentiments of the 
Colonies were known or regarded in 
England, than the impression which these 
measures everywhere produced in Amer- 
ica. It had been anticipated, that while 
the Colonies in general would be terrified 
by the severity of the punishment in- 
flicted on Massachusetts, the other sea- 
ports would be governed by a mere spirit of 
gain ; and that, as Boston was now cut off 
from all commerce, the unexpected advan- 
tage which this blow on her was calculated 
to confer on other towns would be greedily 
enjoyed. How miserably such reasoners de- 
ceived themselves ! How little they knew 
of the depth, and the strength, and the in- 

[204] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

tenseness of that feeling of resistance to 
illegal acts of power, which possessed the 
whole American people ! Everywhere the 
unworthy boon was rejected with scorn. 
The fortunate occasion was seized, every- 
where, to show to the whole world that the 
Colonies were swayed by no local interest, no 
partial interest, no selfish interest. The temp- 
tation to profit by the punishment of Bos- 
ton was strongest to our neighbors of Salem. 
Yet Salem was precisely the place where 
this miserable proffer was spurned, in a tone 
of the most lofty self-respect and the most 
indignant patriotism. " We are deeply af- 
fected," said its inhabitants, " with the sense 
of our public calamities ; but the miseries 
that are now rapidly hastening on our breth- 
ren in the capital of the Province greatly 
excite our commiseration. By shutting up 
the port of Boston some imagine that the 
course of trade might be turned hither and 
to our benefit ; but we must be dead to every 
idea of justice, lost to all feelings of human- 
ity, could we indulge a thought to seize on 
wealth and raise our fortunes on the ruin of 
our suffering neighbors." These noble sen- 
timents were not confined to our immediate 
vicinity. In that day of general affection 

[205] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

and brotherhood, the blow given to Boston 
smote on every patriotic heart from one end 
of the country to the other. Virginia and 
the Carolinas, as well as Connecticut and 
New Hampshire, felt and proclaimed the 
cause to be their own. The Continental 
Congress, then holding its first session in 
Philadelphia, expressed its sympathy for 
the suffering inhabitants of Boston, and ad- 
dresses were received from all quarters, 
assuring them that the cause was a common 
one, and should be met by common efforts 
and common sacrifices. The Congress of 
Massachusetts responded to these assur- 
ances; and in an address to the Congress at 
Philadelphia, bearing the official signature, 
perhaps among the last, of the immortal 
Warren, notwithstanding the severity of its 
suffering and the magnitude of the dangers 
which threatened it, it was declared that this 
Colony " is ready, at all times, to spend and 
to be spent in the cause of America." 

But the hour drew nigh which was to put 
professions to the proof, and to determine 
whether the authors of these mutual pledges 
were ready to seal them in blood. The tid- 
ings of Lexington and Concord had no 
sooner spread, than it was universally felt 

[206] 



THE AMERI CAN IDEA 

that the time was at last come for action. 
A spirit pervaded all ranks, not transient, 
not boisterous, but deep, solemn, deter- 
mined, — 

' ' Totamque infusa per artus 
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet." * 

War on their own soil and at their own 
doors, was, indeed, a strange work to the 
yeomanry of New England ; but their con- 
sciences were convinced of its necessity, 
their country called them to it, and they did 
not withhold themselves from the perilous 
trial. The ordinary occupations of life were 
abandoned ; the plough was stayed in the 
unfinished furrow ; wives gave up their hus- 
bands, and mothers gave up their sons, to 
the battles of a civil war. Death might come 
in honor, on the field; it might come, in dis- 
grace, on the scaffold. For either and for 
both they were prepared. The sentiment of 
Quincy was full in their hearts. " Bland- 
ishments," said that distinguished son of 
genius and patriotism, "will not fascinate 
us, nor will threats of a halter intimidate ; 
for, under God, we are determined, that, 
wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever, we 

* " And a Mind, diffused throughout the members, gives en- 
ergy to the whole mass, and mingles with the vast body." 

[207] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

shall be called to make our exit, we will die 
free men." 

The 17th of June saw the four New Eng- 
land Colonies standing here, side by side, to 
triumph or to fall together ; and there was 
with them from that moment to the end of 
the war, what I hope will remain with them 
forever, — one cause, one country, one heart. 

The battle of Bunker Hill was attended 
with the most important effects beyond its 
immediate results as a military engagement. 
It created at once a state of open, public 
war. There could now be no longer a ques- 
tion of proceeding against individuals, as 
guilty of treason or rebellion. That fearful 
crisis was past. The appeal lay to the 
sword, and the only question was, whether the 
spirit and the resources of the people would 
hold out till the object should be accom- 
plished. Nor were its general consequences 
confined to our own country. The previous 
proceedings of the Colonies, their appeals, 
resolutions, and addresses, had made their 
cause known to Europe. Without boasting, 
we may say, that in no age or country has 
the public cause been maintained with more 
force of argument, more power of illustra- 
tion, or more of that persuasion which ex- 

[208] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

cited feeling and elevated principle can alone 
bestow, than the Revolutionary state papers 
exhibit. These papers will forever deserve 
to be studied, not only for the spirit which 
they breathe, but for the ability with which 
they were written. 

To this able vindication of their cause, the 
Colonies had now added a practical and 
severe proof of their own true devotion to it, 
and given evidence also of the power which 
they could bring to its support. All now 
saw, that if America fell, she would not fall 
without a struggle. Men felt sympathy and 
regard, as well as surprise, when they beheld 
these infant states, remote, unknown, un- 
aided, encounter the power of England, and, 
in the first considerable battle, leave more of 
their enemies dead on the field, in proportion 
to the number of combatants, than had been 
recently known to fall in the wars of Europe. 

Information of these events, circulating 
throughout the world, at length reached the 
ears of one who now hears me."^ He has 
not forgotten the emotion which the fame of 
Bunker Hill, and the name of Warren, ex- 
cited in his youthful breast. 

Sir, we are assembled to commemorate the 

*The Marquis de Lafayette. 

[209] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

establishment of great public principles of 
liberty, and to do honor to the distinguished 
dead. The occasion is too severe for eulogy 
of the living. But, Sir, your interesting 
relation to this country, the peculiar circum- 
stances which surround you and surround 
us, call on me to express the happiness which 
we derive from your presence and aid in 
this solemn commemoration. 

Fortunate, fortunate man ! with what 
measure of devotion will you not thank God 
for the circumstances of your extraordinary 
life! You are connected with both hemi- 
spheres and with two generations. Heaven 
saw fit to ordain that the electric spark of 
liberty should be conducted, through you, 
from the New World to the Old ; and we, 
who are now here to perform this duty of 
patriotism, have all of us long ago received 
it in charge from our fathers to cherish your 
name and your virtues. You will account it 
an instance of your good fortune. Sir, that 
you crossed the seas to visit us at a time 
which enables you to be present at this 
solemnity. You now behold the field, the 
renown of which reached you in the heart of 
France, and caused a thrill in your ardent 
bosom. You see the lines of the little re- 

[210] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

doubt thrown up by the incredible diligence 
of Prescott; defended, to the last extremity, 
by his lion-hearted valor ; and within which 
the corner-stone of our monument has now 
taken its position. You see where Warren 
fell, and where Parker, Gardner, McCleary, 
Moore, and other early patriots fell with him. 
Those who survived that day, and whose 
lives have been prolonged to the present 
hour, are now around you. Some of them 
you have known in the trying scenes of the 
war. Behold! they now stretch forth their 
feeble arms to embrace you. Behold ! they 
raise their trembling voices to invoke the 
blessing of God on you and yours forever. 

Sir, you have assisted us in laying the 
foundation of this structure. You have 
heard us rehearse, with our feeble com- 
mendation, the names of departed patriots. 
Monuments and eulogy belong to the dead. 
We give then this day to Warren and his 
associates. On other occasions they have 
been given to your more immediate com- 
panions in arms, to Washington, to Greene, 
to Gates, to Sullivan, and to Lincoln. We 
have become reluctant to grant these, our 
highest and last honors, further. We would 
gladly hold them yet back from the little 

[211] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

remnant of that immortal band. " Serus in 
c(£lum redeasT^ Illustrious as are your 
merits, yet far, O, very far distant be the 
day, when any inscription shall bear your 
name, or any tongue pronounce its eulogy ! 

The leading reflection to which this occa- 
sion seems to invite us, respects the great 
changes which have happened in the fifty 
years since the battle of Bunker Hill was 
fought. And it peculiarly marks the char- 
acter of the present age, that, in looking at 
these changes, and in estimating their effect 
on our condition, we are obliged to consider, 
not what has been done in our country only, 
but in others also. In these interesting 
times, while nations are making separate 
and individual advances in improvement, 
they make, too, a common progress ; like 
vessels on a common tide, propelled by the 
gales at different rates, according to their 
several structure and management, but all 
moved forward by one mighty current, strong 
enough to bear onward whatever does not 
sink beneath it. 

A chief distinction of the present day is a 
community of opinions and knowledge 
amongst men in different nations, existing 

*"Late may you return to heaven." 

[212] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

in a degree heretofore unknown. Knowl- 
edge has, in our time, triumphed, and is tri- 
umphing, over distance, over difference of 
languages, over diversity of habits, over pre- 
judice, and over bigotry. The civilized and 
Christian world is fast learning the great 
lesson, that difference of nation does not im- 
ply necessary hostility, and that all contact 
need not be war. The whole world is be- 
coming a common field for intellect to act in. 
Energy of mind, genius, power, wheresoever 
it exists, may speak out in any tongue, and 
the world will hear it. A great chord of 
sentiment and feeling runs through two 
continents, and vibrates over both. Every 
breeze wafts intelligence from country to 
country, every wave rolls it ; all give it forth, 
and all in turn receive it. There is a vast 
commerce of ideas ; there are marts and ex- 
changes for intellectual discoveries, and a 
wonderful fellowship of those individual in- 
telligences which make up the mind and 
opinion of the age. Mind is the great lever 
of all things ; human thought is the process 
by which human ends are ultimately an- 
swered; and the diffusion of knowledge, 
so astonishing in the last half-century, has 
rendered innumerable minds, variously gifted 

[213] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

by nature, competent to be competitors or 
fellow-workers on the theater of intellectual 
operation. 

From these causes important improve- 
ments have taken place in the personal con- 
dition of individuals. Generally speaking, 
mankind are not only better fed and better 
clothed, but they are able also to enjoy more 
leisure ; they possess more refinement and 
more self-respect. A superior tone of edu- 
cation, manners, and habits prevails. This 
remark, most true in its application to our 
own country, is also partly true when applied 
elsewhere. It is proved by the vastly aug- 
mented consumption of those articles of 
manufacture and of commerce which con- 
tribute to the comforts and the decencies of 
life ; an augmentation which has far outrun 
the progress of population. And while the 
unexampled and almost incredible use of 
machinery would seem to supply the place 
of labor, labor still finds its occupation and 
its reward; so wisely has Providence ad- 
justed men's wants and desires to their con- 
dition and their capacity. 

Any adequate survey, however, of the 
progress made during the last half-century 
in the polite and the mechanic arts, in ma- 

[214] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

chinery and manufactures, in commerce and 
agriculture, in letters and in science, would 
require volumes. I must abstain wholly from 
these subjects, and turn for a moment to the 
contemplation of what has been done on the 
great question of politics and government. 
This is the master topic of the age ; and 
during the whole fifty years it has intensely 
occupied the thoughts of men. The nature 
of civil government, its ends and uses, have 
been canvassed and investigated ; ancient 
opinions attacked and defended; new ideas 
recommended and resisted, by whatever 
power the mind of man could bring to the 
controversy. From the closet and the pub- 
lic halls the debate has been transferred to 
the field ; and the world has been shaken 
by wars of unexampled magnitude, and the 
greatest variety of fortune. A day of peace 
has at length succeeded ; and now that the 
strife has subsided, and the smoke cleared 
away, we may begin to see what has actually 
been done, permanently changing the state 
and condition of human society. And, with- 
out dwelling on particular circumstances, it 
is most apparent, that, from the before-men- 
tioned causes of augmented knowledge and 
improved individual condition, a real, sub- 

[215] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

stantial, and important change has taken 
place, and is taking place, highly favorable, 
on the whole, to human liberty and human 
happiness. 

The great wheel of political revolution 
began to move in America. Here its rota- 
tion was guarded, regular, and safe. Trans- 
ferred to the other continent, from unfor- 
tunate but natural causes, it received an 
irregular and violent impulse; it whirled 
along with a fearful celerity; till at length, 
like the chariot-wheels in the races of antiq- 
uity, it took fire from the rapidity of its own 
motion, and blazed onward, spreading con- 
flagration and terror around. 

We learn from the result of this experi- 
ment, how fortunate was our own condition, 
and how admirably the character of our 
people was calculated for setting the great 
example of popular governments. The pos- 
session of power did not turn the heads of 
the American people, for they had long been 
in the habit of exercising a great degree of 
self-control. Although the paramount au- 
thority of the parent state existed over 
them, yet a large field of legislation had al- 
ways been open to our Colonial assemblies. 
They were accustomed to representative 

[216] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

bodies and the forms of free government; 
they understood the doctrine of the division 
of power among different branches, and the 
necessity of checks on each. The character 
of our countrymen, moreover, was sober, 
moral, and religious ; and there was little in 
the change to shock their feelings of justice 
and humanity, or even to disturb an honest 
prejudice. We had no domestic throne to 
overturn, no privileged orders to cast down, 
no violent changes of property to encounter. 
In the American Revolution, no man sought 
or wished for more than to defend and enjoy 
his own. None hoped for plunder or for 
spoil. Rapacity was unknown to it ; the axe 
was not among the instruments of its accom- 
plishment ; and we all know that it could 
not have lived a single day under any well- 
founded imputation of possessing a tendency 
adverse to the Christian religion. 

It need not surprise us, that, under cir- 
(iumstances less auspicious, political revolu- 
tions elsewhere, even when well intended, 
have terminated differently. It is, indeed, a 
great achievement, it is the masterwork of 
the world, to establish governments entirely 
popular on lasting foundations ; nor is it 
easy, indeed, to introduce the popular prin- 

[217] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ciple at all into governments to which it has 
been altogether a stranger. It cannot be 
doubted, however, that Europe has come 
out of the contest, in which she has been so 
long engaged, with greatly superior knowl- 
edge, and, in many respects, in a highly im- 
proved condition. Whatever benefit has 
been acquired is likely to be retained, for it 
consists mainly in the acquisition of more 
enlightened ideas. And although kingdoms 
and provinces may be wrested from the 
hands that hold them, in the same manner 
they were obtained ; although ordinary and 
vulgar power may, in human affairs, be lost 
as it has been won; yet it is the glorious 
prerogative of the empire of knowledge, that 
what it gains it never loses. On the con- 
trary, it increases by the multiple of its own 
power ; all its ends become means ; all its 
attainments, helps to new conquests. Its 
whole abundant harvest is but so much seed 
wheat, and nothing has limited, and nothing 
can limit, the amount of ultimate product. 

Under the influence of this rapidly in- 
creasing knowledge, the people have begun, 
in all forms of government, to think, and to 
reason, on affairs of state. Regarding gov- 
ernment as an institution for the public 

[218] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

good, they demand a knowledge of its oper- 
ations, and a participation in its exercise. A 
call for the representative system, wherever 
it is not enjoyed, and where there is already 
intelligence enough to estimate its value, is 
perseveringly made. Where men may speak 
out, they demand it ; where the bayonet is 
at their throats, they pray for it. 

When Louis the Fourteenth said, " I am 
the State," he expressed the essence of the 
doctrine of unlimited power. By the rules 
of that system, the people are disconnected 
from the state ; they are its subjects, it is 
their lord. These ideas, founded in the love 
of pov/er, and long supported by the excess 
and the abuse of it, are yielding, in our age, 
to other opinions; and the civilized world 
seems at last to be proceeding to the convic- 
tion of that fundamental and manifest truth, 
that the powers of government are but a 
trust, and that they cannot be lawfully exer- 
cised but for the good of the community. 
As knowledge is more and more extended, 
this conviction becomes more and more gen- 
eral. Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun 
in the firmament. Life and power are 
scattered with all its beams. The prayer of 
the Grecian champion, when enveloped in 

[219] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

unnatural clouds and darkness, is the appro- 
priate political supplication for the people of 
every country not yet blessed with free insti- 
tutions : — 

'* Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore. 
Give me to see, — and Ajax asks no more." 

We may hope that the growing influence 
of enlightened sentiment will promote the 
permanent peace of the world. Wars to 
maintain family alliances, to uphold or to 
cast down dynasties, and to regulate suc- 
cessions to thrones, which have occupied so 
much room in the history of modern times, 
if not less likely to happen at all, will be less 
likely to become general and involve many 
nations, as the great principle shall be more 
and more established, that the interest of 
the world is peace, and its first great statute, 
that every nation possesses the power of es- 
tablishing a government for itself. But pub- 
lic opinion has attained also an influence 
over governments which do not admit the 
popular principle into their organization. A 
necessary respect for the judgment of the 
world operates, in some measure, as a con- 
trol over the most unlimited forms of au- 
thority. It is owing, perhaps, to this truth, 

[220] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

that the interesting struggle of the Greeks 
has been suffered to go on so long, without 
a direct interference, either to wrest that 
country from its present masters, or to exe- 
cute the system of pacification by force; 
and, with united strength, lay the neck of 
Christian and civilized Greek at the foot of 
the barbarian Turk. Let us thank God that 
we live in an age when something has influ- 
ence besides the bayonet, and when the 
sternest authority does not venture to en- 
counter the scorching power of public re- 
proach. Any attempt of the kind I have 
mentioned should be met by one universal 
burst of indignation ; the air of the civilized 
world ought to be made too warm to be 
comfortably breathed by any one who would 
hazard it. 

It is, indeed, a touching reflection, that, 
while, in the fullness of our country's happi- 
ness, we rear this monument to her honor, 
we look for instruction in our undertaking 
to a country which is now in fearful contest, 
not for works of art or memorials of glory, 
but for her own existence. Let her be as- 
sured, that she is not forgotten in the world ; 
that her efforts are applauded, and that con- 
stant prayers ascend for her success. And 

[221] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

let us cherish a confident hope for her final 
triumph. If the true spark of religious and 
civil liberty be kindled, it will burn. Human 
agency cannot extinguish it. Like the earth's 
central fire, it may be smothered for a time; 
the ocean may overwhelm it ; mountains 
may press it down ; but its inherent and un- 
conquerable force will heave both the ocean 
and the land, and at some time or other, in 
some place or other, the volcano will break 
out and flame up to heaven. 

Among the great events of the half-cen- 
tury, we must reckon, certainly, the revolu- 
tion of South America ; and we are not likely 
to overrate the importance of that revolution, 
either to the people of the country itself or 
to the rest of the world. The late Spanish 
colonies, now independent states, under cir- 
cumstances less favorable, doubtless, than at- 
tended our own revolution, have yet success- 
fully commenced their national existence. 
They have accomplished the great object of 
establishing their independence; they are 
known and acknowledged in the world ; and 
although in regard to their systems of gov- 
ernment, their sentiments on religious tol- 
eration, and their provision for public 

instruction, they may have yet much to 

[222] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

learn, it must be admitted that they have 
risen to the condition of settled and estab- 
lished states more rapidly than could have 
been reasonably anticipated. They already 
furnish an exhilarating example of the 
difference between free governments and 
despotic misrule. Their commerce, at this 
moment, creates a new activity in all the 
great marts of the world. They show them- 
selves able, by an exchange of commodities, 
to bear a useful part in the intercourse of 
nations. 

A new spirit of enterprise and industry 
begins to prevail; all the great interests of 
society receive a salutary impulse ; and the 
progress of information not only testifies to 
an improved condition, but itself constitutes 
the highest and most essential improvement. 

When the battle of Bunker Hill was 
fought, the existence of South America was 
scarcely felt in the civilized world. The 
thirteen little colonies of North America 
habitually called themselves the "continent." 
Borne down by colonial subjugation, monop- 
oly, and bigotry, these vast regions of the 
South were hardly visible above the horizon. 
But in our day there has been, as it were, a 
new creation. The southern hemisphere 

[223] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

emerges from the sea. Its lofty mountains 
begin to lift themselves into the light of 
heaven ; its broad and fertile plains stretch 
out, in beauty, to the eye of civilized man, 
and at the mighty bidding of the voice of 
political liberty the waters of darkness retire. 

And now, let us indulge an honest exulta- 
tion in the conviction of the benefit which 
the example of our country has produced, and 
is likely to produce, on human freedom and 
human happiness. Let us endeavor to com- 
prehend in all its magnitude, and to feel in 
all its importance, the part assigned to us in 
the sreat drama of human affairs. We are 
placed at the head of the system of represen- 
tative and popular governments. Thus far 
our example shows that such governments 
are compatible, not only with respectability 
and power, but with repose, with peace, with 
security of personal rights, with good laws, 
and a just administration. 

We are not propagandists. Wherever 
other systems are preferred, either as being 
thought better in themselves, or as better 
suited to existing conditions, we leave the 
preference to be enjoyed. Our history hith- 
erto proves, however, that the popular form 
is practicable, and that with wisdom and 

[224] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

knowledge men may govern themselves ; and 
the duty incumbent on us is to preserve the 
consistency of this cheering example, and 
take care that nothing may weaken its 
authority with the world. If, in our case, 
the representative system ultimately fail, 
popular governments must be pronounced 
impossible. No combination of circum- 
stances more favorable to the experiment 
can ever be expected to occur. The last 
hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us ; 
and if it should be proclaimed, that our ex- 
ample had become an argument against the 
experiment, the knell of popular liberty 
would be sounded throughout the earth. 

These are excitements to duty; but they 
are not suggestions of doubt. Our history 
and our condition, all that is gone before 
us, and all that surrounds us, authorize 
the belief, that popular governments, though 
subject to occasional variations, in form per- 
haps not always for the better, may yet, in 
their general character, be as durable and 
permanent as other systems. We know, 
indeed, that in our country any other is 
impossible. The principle of free govern- 
ments adheres to the American soil. It is 
bedded in it, immovable as its mountains. 

[225] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

And let the sacred obligations which have 
devolved on this generation, and on us, sink 
deep into our hearts. Those who established 
our liberty and our government are daily 
dropping from among us. The great trust 
now descends to new hands. Let us apply 
ourselves to that which is presented to us, as 
our appropriate object. We can win no 
laurels in a war for independence. Earlier 
and worthier hands have gathered them all. 
Nor are there places for us by the side of 
Solon, and Alfred, and other founders of 
states. Our fathers have filled them. But 
there remains to us a great duty of defense 
and preservation ; and there is opened to us, 
also, a noble pursuit, to which the spirit of 
the times strongly invites us. Our proper 
business is improvement. Let our age be 
the age of improvement. In a day of peace, 
let us advance the arts of peace and the 
works of peace. Let us develop the re- 
sources of our land, call forth its powers, 
build up its institutions, promote all its great 
interests, and see whether we also, in our 
day and generation, may not perform some- 
thing worthy to be remembered. Let us 
cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. 
In pursuing the great objects which our 

[226] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

condition points out to us, let us act under a 
settled conviction, and an habitual feeling, 
that these twenty-four States are one coun- 
try. Let our conceptions be enlarged to the 
circle of our duties. Let us extend our 
ideas over the whole of the vast field in 
which we are called to act. Let our object 

be, OUR COUNTRY, OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND 

NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY. And, by the 
blessing of God, may that country itself be- 
come a vast and splendid monument, not of 
oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of 
Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the world 
may gaze with admiration forever ! 



[227] 



emocracy 




Extract from an Address delivered by 
United States Minister Lowell, on 
assuming the presidency of the bir- 
MINGHAM AND Midland Institute, Bir- 
mingham, England, October 6, 1884.^ 

E are told that the inevitable result 
of democracy is to sap the foun- 
dations of personal independence, 
to weaken the principle of authority, to les- 
sen the respect due to eminence, whether in 
station, virtue, or genius. If these things 
were so, society could not hold together. 
Perhaps the best forcing-house of robust in- 
dividuality would be where public opinion is 
inclined to be most overbearing, as he must 
be of heroic temper who should walk along 
Piccadilly at the height of the season in a 
soft hat. As for authority, it is one of the 
symptoms of the time that the religious rev- 
erence for it is declining everywhere, but this 
is due partly to the fact that state-craft is no 

* From Lowell's Complete Works, by permission of Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co. 

[228] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

longer looked upon as a mystery, but as a 
business, and partly to the decay of supersti- 
tion, by which I mean the habit of respecting 
what we are told to respect rather than what 
is respectable in itself. There is more rough 
and tumble in the American democracy than 
is altogether agreeable to people of sensitive 
nerves and refined habits, and the people take 
their political duties lightly and laughingly, 
as is, perhaps, neither unnatural nor unbecom- 
ing in a young giant. Democracies can no 
more jump away from their own shadows than 
the rest of us can. They no doubt sometimes 
make mistakes and pay honor to men who 
do not deserve it. But they do this because 
they believe them worthy of it, and though 
it be true that the idol is the measure of the 
worshiper, yet the worship has in it the germ 
of a nobler religion. But is it democracies 
alone that fall into these errors? I, who 
have seen it proposed to erect a statue to 
Hudson, the railway king, and have heard 
Louis Napoleon hailed as the savior of 
society by men who certainly had no demo- 
cratic associations or leanings, am not ready 
to think so. But democracies have likewise 
their finer instincts. I have also seen the 
wisest statesman and most pregnant speaker 

[229] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of our generation, a man of humble birth 
and ungainly manners, of little culture be- 
yond what his own genius supplied, become 
more absolute in power than any monarch 
of modern times through the reverence of 
his countrymen for his honesty, his wisdom, 
his sincerity, his faith in God and man, and 
the nobly humane simplicity of his charac- 
ter. And I remember another whom popu- 
lar respect enveloped as with a halo, the least 
vulgar of men, the most austerely genial, 
and the most independent of opinion. Wher- 
ever he went he never met a stranger, but 
everywhere neighbors and friends proud of 
him as their ornament and decoration. In- 
stitutions which could bear and breed such 
men as Lincoln and Emerson had surely 
some energy for good. No, amid all the 
fruitless turmoil and miscarriage of the 
world, if there be one thing steadfast and of 
favorable omen, one thing to make optimism 
distrust its own obscure distrust, it is the 
rooted instinct in men to admire what is bet- 
ter and more beautiful than themselves. The 
touchstone of political and social institu- 
tions is their ability to supply them with 
worthy objects of this sentiment, which is 
the very tap-root of civilization and progress. 

[230] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

There would seem to be no readier way of 
feeding it with the elements of growth and 
vigor than such an organization of society 
as will enable men to respect themselves, 
and so to justify them in respecting others. 
Such a result is quite possible under other 
conditions than those of an avowedly demo- 
cratical Constitution. For I take it that the 
real essence of democracy was fairly enough 
defined by the First Napoleon when he said 
that the French Revolution meant " la car- 
riere ouverte aux talents " — a clear pathway 
for merit of whatever kind. I should be in- 
clined to paraphrase this by calling democ- 
racy that form of society, no matter what its 
political classification, in which every man 
had a chance and knew that he had it. If a 
man can climb, and feels himself encouraged 
to climb, from a coalpit to the highest posi- 
tion for which he is fitted, he can well afford 
to be indifferent what name is given to 
the government under which he lives. The 
Bailli of Mirabeau, uncle of the more famous 
tribune of that name, wrote in 1771 : " The 
English are, in my opinion, a hundred times 
more agitated and more unfortunate than 
the very Algerines themselves, because they 
do not know and will not know till the de- 

[231] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

struction of their over-swollen power, which 
I believe very near, whether they are mon- 
archy, aristocracy, or democracy, and wish 
to play the part of all three." England has 
not been obliging enough to fulfill the Bail- 
li's prophecy, and perhaps it was this very 
carelessness about the name, and concern 
about the substance of popular government, 
this skill in getting the best out of things as 
they are, in utilizing all the motives which 
influence men, and in giving one direction to 
many impulses, that has been a principal 
factor of her greatness and power. Perhaps 
it is fortunate to have an unwritten Constitu- 
tion, for men are prone to be tinkering the 
work of their own hands, whereas they are 
more willing to let time and circumstance 
mend or modify what time and circumstance 
have made. All free governments, whatever 
their name, are in reality governments by 
public opinion, and it is on the quality of 
this public opinion that their prosperity de- 
pends. It is, therefore, their first duty to 
purify the element from which they draw the 
breath of life. With the growth of democ- 
racy grows also the fear, if not the danger, 
that this atmosphere may be corrupted with 
poisonous exhalations from lower and more 

[232] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

malarious levels, and the question of sanita- 
tion becomes more instant and pressing. 
Democracy in its best sense is merely the 
letting in of light and air. Lord Sher- 
brooke, with his usual epigrammatic terse- 
ness, bids you educate your future rulers. 
But would this alone be a sufficient safe- 
guard .^^ To educate the intelligence is to 
enlarge the horizon of its desires and wants. 
And it is well that this should be so. But 
the enterprise must go deeper and prepare 
the way for satisfying those desires and 
wants in so far as they are legitimate. What 
is really ominous of danger to the existing 
order of things is not democracy (which, 
properly understood, is a conservative force), 
but the Socialism which may find a fulcrum 
in it. If we cannot equalize conditions and 
fortunes any more than we can equalize the 
brains of men — and a very sagacious person 
has said that " where two men ride a horse 
one must ride behind" — we can yet, per- 
haps, do something to correct those methods 
and influences that lead to enormous ine- 
qualities, and to prevent their growing more 
enormous. It is all very well to pooh-pooh 
Mr. George and to prove him mistaken in 
his political economy. I do not believe that 

[233] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

land should be divided because the quantity 
of it is limited by nature. Of what may this 
not be said ? A fortiori, we might on the 
same principle insist on a division of human 
wit, for I have observed that the quantity of 
this has been even more inconveniently lim- 
ited. Mr. George himself has an inequitably 
large share of it. But he is right in his im- 
pelling motive ; right, also, I am convinced, 
in insisting that humanity makes a part, by 
far the most important part, of political 
economy; and in thinking man to be of 
more concern and more convincing than the 
longest columns of figures in the world. For 
unless you include human nature in your 
addition, your total is sure to be wrong and 
your deductions from it fallacious. Commu- 
nism means barbarism, but Socialism means, 
or washes to mean, co-operation and commu- 
nity of interests, sympathy, the giving to the 
hands not so large a share as to the brains, 
but a larger share than hitherto in the 
wealth they must combine to produce — 
means, in short, the practical application of 
Christianity to life, and has in it the secret 
of an orderly and benign reconstruction. 
State Socialism would cut off the very roots 
in personal character — self-help, forethought, 

[234] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

and frugality — which nourish and sustain 
the trunk and branches of every vigorous 
Commonwealth. 

I do not believe in violent changes, nor do 
I expect them. Things in possession have 
a very firm grip. One of the strongest 
cements of society is the conviction of man- 
kind that the state of things into which they 
are born is a part of the order of the uni- 
verse, as natural, let us say, as that the sun 
should go round the earth. It is a convic- 
tion that they will not surrender except on 
compulsion, and a wise society should look 
to it that this compulsion be not put upon 
them. For the individual man there is no 
radical cure, outside of human nature itself, 
for the evils to which human nature is heir. 
The rule will always hold good that you 
must 

" Be your own palace or the world's your gaol." 

But for artificial evils, for evils that spring 
from want of thought, thought must find a 
remedy somewhere. There has been no 
period of time in which wealth has been 
more sensible of its duties than now. It 
builds hospitals, it establishes missions 
amiong the poor, it endows schools. It is 

[235] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

one of the advantages of accumulated wealth, 
and of the leisure it renders possible, that 
people have time to think of the wants and 
sorrows of their fellows. But all these 
remedies are partial and palliative merely. 
It is as if we should apply plasters to a single 
pustule of the small-pox with a view of driv- 
ing out the disease. The true way is to 
discover and to extirpate the germs. As 
society is now constituted these are in the 
air it breathes, in the water it drinks, in 
things that seem, and which it has always 
believed, to be the most innocent and health- 
ful. The evil elements it neglects corrupt 
these in their springs and pollute them in 
their courses. Let us be of good cheer, how- 
ever, remembering that the misfortunes hard- 
est to bear are those which never come. 
The world has outlived much, and will out- 
live a great deal more, and men have con- 
trived to be happy in it. It has shown the 
strength of its constitution in nothing more 
than in surviving the quack medicines it has 
tried. In the scales of the destinies brawn 
will never weigh so much as brain. Our 
healing is not in the storm or in the whirl- 
wind, it is not in monarchies, or aristo- 
cracies, or democracies, but will be revealed 

[236] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

by the still small voice that speaks to the 
conscience and the heart, prompting us to a 
wider and wiser humanity. 



[237] 



The Self-Made Man 
In American Life 

Address delivered by Ex-President Cleve- 
land AT Princeton University, on the 
150TH Anniversary of its Founda- 
tion, October, 1897. 

SHALL treat the topic I have selected 
without any attempt to lead the way 
into untrodden fields of thought or to 
point out new truths. I not only believe 
that if I should enter upon such an under- 
taking I would be guilty of bold presump- 
tion, but it seems to me we can quite as prof- 
itably improve the time we spend together 
in renewing our acquaintance with some old 
truths, and recalling their relationship to 
human life and effort. In following this 
suggestion we shall manifestly find it easier 
if we start from familiar ground, and take 
our departure from some well-known land- 
mark. 

With this introduction I hope I may be 
tolerated in the announcement that I pro- 

[238] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

pose to submit on this occasion some simple 
reflections concerning the Self-Made Man. 

There has been so much said of him at 
random, and he has been so often presented 
as an altogether wonderful being, that it is 
not strange if there exists in some quarters 
an entire misapprehension of the manner of 
his creation, as well as an exaggerated idea 
of his nature and mission. A romantic and 
sentimental glamour has enveloped him, 
magnifying his proportions, and causing him 
to appear much larger and in every way 
greater than other men. As to the origin of 
his qualities of size and greatness, the notion 
seems to be current that they are the direct 
results of the frowns of Fortune, which de- 
prived him of educational advantages, and 
doomed him to travel to success by a road 
rugged with obstacles and difficulties. Of 
course in this view of the self-made man 
success is a necessary factor in his existence; 
for unless he accomplishes something not 
altogether commonplace and usual, he is 
deemed unworthy of the name. Indeed, it 
need not surprise us to find that success 
alone, if reached after a fierce struggle with 
diffculties and disadvantages, leads, by famil- 
iarity and easy association, to a sort of hazy 

[239] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

conception that these difficulties and disad- 
vantages were not untoward incidents, but 
necessary accompaniments to such success. 

I desire here explicitly and emphatically 
to express my respect and admiration for 
those who have won honorable success in 
spite of discouraging surroundings, and who 
have made themselves great and useful in 
their day and generation through the sheer 
force of indomitable will and courage. 
Nothing can be more noble and heroic than 
their struggles; and nothing can be more 
inspiring and valuable than their example 
and achievements ; and whatever may be 
their measure of success, their willingness to 
undergo hardships to win it, demonstrates 
that they have in their nature the fiber and 
lasting qualities that make strong men. 

But while we thus pay a deserved tribute 
to true manliness, we by no means admit the 
fanciful notion that the difficulties that stood 
in the way of these self-made men were 
essential to their success. They were 
obstacles which they overcame, thus winning 
distinction and honor. Thousands of others 
have been discouraged by these same 
obstacles, and found an appropriate place 
among dullards and drones. It is true that 

[240] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

many eager men have laid the foundations 
of future usefulness and greatness in study 
between the hours of their labor for bread, 
and by the light of a pine knot or open fire- 
place ; but many others have spent the same 
time not more profitably than in careless, 
sleepy indolence, and have by the same light 
undermined their mental and moral health 
with vile books and companionship, or in 
learning the first lessons in vice. 

We have all seen handsome and quite 
elaborately carved articles or trinkets which 
were made entirely with a pocket-knife. As 
curiosities they challenge our interest be- 
cause of the ingenuity and difficulty of their 
construction with such a simple tool ; but we 
do not regard them as more useful for that 
reason, nor do we for a moment suppose 
that the pocket-knife was essential to their 
construction, or that their beauty or merit 
would have been diminished by the use of 
more effective and suitable tools. 

It is well to remember, too, in considering 
those who succeed notwithstanding difficul- 
ties, that not all successes, even though so 
gained, are of that useful and elevating kind 
that should excite our admiration. The 
churlish curmudgeon, who by sharp practices 

[241] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

and avaricious dealing has amassed a for- 
tune, should not be permitted to cajole us 
by boasting of his early privations and sor- 
did self-denial. We are at liberty to resent 
in any case the attempt to cover a multitude 
of sins with the cloak of the self-made man, 
by playing upon our regard for the worth 
and labor that conquers a useful and honor- 
able career ; and the successful political hack 
should not be allowed to distract us from a 
damaged character, by parading his humble 
origin, his lack of early advantages, and the 
struggles of his boyhood, as independent 
and sufficient proofs that he is entitled to 
our suffrages. 

The truth is, the merit of the successful 
man who has struggled with difficulties and 
disadvantages must be judged by the kind 
of success he has achieved, by the use he 
makes of it, and by its effect upon his char- 
acter and life. If his success is clean and 
wholesome, if he uses it to make his fellows 
better and happier, and if he faithfully re- 
sponds to all the obligations of a liberal, 
public-spirited, and useful citizen, his strug- 
gles should add immensely to the honor and 
consideration he deserves. 

If, on the other hand, his success is of the 

[242] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

grasping, sordid kind, if he clutches it closely 
for his selfish gratification, and if with suc- 
cess he is bankrupt in character, sordidly 
mean, useless as a citizen, or of evil influ- 
ence in his relations with his fellow-men, his 
struggles should not save him from con- 
tempt. Those included in either of these 
classes may in the ordinary acceptation be 
termed self-made men ; but it is quite evident 
that there are so-called self-made men not 
worth the making. Let us exclude these 
from further consideration, and direct our 
attention to the manner of production and 
the characteristics and use of the men who 
fit themselves to benefit and improve human 
conditions according to their environments, 
who, if they fulfill their mission, learn that 
the fruits they gather are sweetest when 
shared by others, and who cheerfully yield, 
in benefactions to their fellow-men, self-im- 
posed tithes in kind, from their accumula- 
tions of hand, mind, or heart. This will not 
be a departure from our topic. The men 
thus described are self-made men because 
they can only be the products of self-en- 
deavor and struggle — often to overcome ex- 
ternal difficulties and disadvantages, and 
always to improve whatever opportunities 

[243] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

are within their reach, to subdue the selfish- 
ness of human nature, and to stimulate its 
noblest aspirations. 

The construction of such a man requires 
fit material and the use of proper tools. 
Some grades of material may be capable of 
better finish and finer form than others; 
but all will yield sufficiently to treatment to 
become strong, durable, and useful. 

Manifestly among the tools to be used in 
the construction of the best quality of our 
self-made man, education is vitally impor- 
tant. Its share of the work consists in so 
strengthening and fashioning the grain and 
fiber of the material as to develop its great- 
est power and fit it for the most extensive 
and varied service. This process cannot be 
neglected with the expectation of satisfac- 
tory results ; and its thoroughness and ef- 
fectiveness must depend upon the excellence 
and condition of the tool employed, and the 
skill and care with which it is used. 

Thus the advantages of our common 
schools, freely offered to all, and often forced 
upon the unwilling, furnish an education by 
no means to be underrated. We are far 
from overlooking its grand accomplishments, 
and we are not unmindful of the thousands 

[244] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of instances where it has adequately wrought 
in the production of our ideal self-made 
man ; but, considered as a tool necessary to 
this supremely important construction, it 
cannot be claimed that in quality and cer- 
tainty of results it compares with the higher 
education supplied by our universities and 
colleges. 

Happily we are able to recognize conditions 
which tend to an improved appreciation of 
collegiate advantages. The extension of our 
school system ought to stimulate the desire 
of pupils to enjoy larger opportunities ; the 
old superstition concerning the close rela- 
tionship between the greatness of the self- 
made man and meager educational advantages 
is fast disappearing ; and parents are more 
generally convinced that the time and money 
involved in a college course for their children 
are not wasted. 

In these circumstances it appears to me 
that there is no sufficient reason why so 
many of our young men fail of enrollment 
among our college students. I am afraid 
the fault is largely theirs, and that they do 
not fully realize the great benefit they as in- 
dividuals would derive from a liberal educa- 
tion ; and, even if oblivious to this, it would 

[245] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

seem that the obligation resting upon them 
to do their share towards furnishing to our 
country the kind of self-made men it so 
much needs ought to incite them to enter 
upon this duty in the surest and most effec- 
tive manner. 

We are considering the importance of a 
liberal education in its widest usefulness and 
from a point of view that excludes the idea 
that such an education is only valuable as a 
preparation for a professional career. In my 
opinion, we could as reasonably claim that 
our professional ranks are more than suffi- 
ciently recruited, as to say that educated 
men are out of place in other walks of life. 
We need the right kind of educated self- 
made men in our business circles, on our 
farms, and everywhere. We need them for 
the good they may do by raising the stand- 
ard of intelligence within their field of influ- 
ence; we need them for the evidence they 
may furnish that education is a profitable 
factor in all vocations and in all the ordinary 
affairs of a community; and we especially 
and sorely need such men, abundantly dis- 
tributed among our people, for what they 
may do in patriotically steadying the cur- 
rents of political sentiment and action. In a 

[246] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

country like ours, where the people are its 
rulers, it is exceedingly unfortunate that 
there should be so many blind followers of 
the lying partisan and the flattering dema- 
gogue. 

After what has been said, it is probably 
unnecessary for me to state that I am at- 
tempting not only to present the self-made 
man as he ought to exist, but also to speak 
of him in his relations to the common every- 
day life of our people. I am considering 
my topic with the mass of our American 
citizenship constantly before my mind. My 
thought is, that this mass can be, and ought 
to be, greatly improved, and made a better 
and safer depository of our trust in the per- 
petuity and beneficence of a free govern- 
ment. I believe this can be accomplished 
by adding to our citizenship more of the 
leaven of genuine, well-constructed and well- 
equipped self-made men. They must of 
course be not only well-constructed and well- 
equipped, but they should be in sincere sym- 
pathy with all that concerns the betterment 
of the conditions surrounding them ; in other 
words, they should be actively useful. Of 
all useless men the most culpably useless are 
those who, having educational acquirements 

[247] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

and fitness for beneficial work, do no more 
than exploit their acquirements in the false 
and unhealthy sociability of habitual club 
life, or only utilize them as aids to the selfish 
pleasure of constantly restless foreign travel, 
or as accessories to other profitless enjoy- 
ment. Such a waste of qualifications for 
valuable service is especially blameworthy in 
a country like ours, where so many national 
problems remain unsolved, and where vast 
development awaits the most strenuous and 
intelligent effort. 

I have mentioned a liberal education as a 
most important process in the construction 
of our ideal self-made man. I hardly need 
say that this education means something 
more than mere book-learning, and that it 
includes not only the practical knowledge 
and information concerning men and things 
which so easily accompanies the knowledge 
of books, but also the mental discipline and 
orderly habit of thought which systematic 
study begets. Obviously this definition ex- 
cludes that measure of book-learning barely 
sufiicient to claim a diploma, and used for 
no better purpose than to decorate the ease 
of wealth and ornament an inactive exist- 
ence. 

[248] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

I am conscious that I have done little 
more than to touch upon the importance of 
a liberal education as essential to the proper 
construction of our self-made man. I have 
intentionally avoided a more extended dis- 
cussion of a proposition which it seems to 
me is so plainly certain. And yet notwith- 
standing the potency of this factor, and even 
though education may have contributed to 
the construction all that it can accomplish, 
the work, if still lacking moral stamina and 
resistance, will be a sad failure, if nothing 
worse. 

We have known of those to whom educa- 
tion had given all its gifts, who yet did 
wrong continually, espousing every vicious 
and unrighteous cause, and delighting in the 
prostitution of their splendid powers and 
acquirements to the betrayal and injury of 
every noble purpose. 

We have seen the scholar in public life 
teaching tricks to tricksters, and with the 
mask of education on his face leading the 
way to the lowest depths of partisan deceit 
and intrigue. 

When direful anarchy held possession of 
the proud capital of France and drenched 
her streets in blood, education, though not 

[249] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

absent, failed to stay the fury that decreed 
the horrors of those appalling days. In the 
unrestrained revelry of impious wickedness 
and godless rage, morality and conscience 
were banished. The historian of that dark 
period has told us : — 

"The services of religion were now uni- 
versally abandoned; . . . baptism ceased; 
the burial service was no longer heard ; the 
sick received no communion, the dying no 
consolation; . . . the village bells were silent; 
Sunday was obliterated ; infancy entered the 
world without a blessing, and age left it 
without a hope ; ... on every tenth day a 
revolutionary leader ascended the pulpit and 
preached atheism to the bewildered audi- 
ence ; ... on all the public cemeteries the 
inscription was placed : ' Death is an eter- 
nal sleep.' " 

Since, therefore, education does not create 
the moral qualities without which our self- 
made man is so lamentably imperfect, it is 
obvious that other tools must be employed 
to supply the deficiencies. For this labor 
nothing can take the place of a sensitive, 
discriminating conscience and a courageous 
conception of right and duty. In good or 
bad plight every one should have these tools 

[250] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ready at hand; and he is the most fortunate 
who has kept them in the best condition. It 
sometimes happens that with our growth 
there comes to us a feeling that the tender 
conscience and aversion to wrong of child- 
hood are too strict and narrow to suit the 
sterner activities of our maturer years ; and 
I am not sure that instances are lackine of a 
kind of arrogance of education, generally 
appearing in its early stages, which confi- 
dently assumes that the heart and conscience 
which answered the purposes of younger 
days do not befit the dignity of learned men. 
The toleration of such ideas by those en- 
gaged in self-making, indicates that their 
most important tools need attention. The 
obedience, conscience, and affection of the 
child should not only be carefully protected 
by the man against injury and harm, but 
should grow stronger with our growth, and 
keener and brighter with our years. If thus 
strengthened and burnished, they will be 
found abundantly adequate to contribute to 
the construction of our self-made man the 
qualities of obedience to every duty and 
obligation ; moral courage that dares at all 
times to confess fealty to the laws of God 
and morality; unyielding integrity, unwav- 

[251] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ering devotion to country, and constant love 
for humanity. 

We must remember, however, that after 
the happy completion of this construction, 
its care and preservation cannot be safely 
neglected. Our self-made man will be ex- 
posed to the warping distortion of temptation 
from without, and to the corrosion of selfish- 
ness from within. But continual watchful- 
ness, and well-directed activity in attempting 
to compass the high purposes of his creation, 
may easily baffle temptation ; while by open- 
ing his heart to the bright influences of love 
for his fellow-men, and by deeds of charity 
and kindness, he may save himself from self- 
ishness. 

There should be no cause for depression 
in recalling the fact that success will not 
always bring to our self-made man either 
riches or fame. Though these rewards will 
be lavishly distributed, he to whom they may 
not be forthcoming, if he endures to the end 
and remains true to himself and his mission, 
will have in his own keeping a more valu- 
able reward, in the consciousness of duty 
well and faithfully performed. Popular 
applause is, of course, gratifying; but there 
are times when a man's own satisfaction 

[252] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

v/ith his conduct is a better criterion of real 
merit. 

Wealth should by no means be disparaged 
as representing success, provided it is ac- 
companied by a reasonable realization of the 
obligations its possession imposes. We can- 
not attempt to fix the extent of these obliga- 
tions ; but we are entitled to insist that in 
the race for riches the feeling and sentiment 
that make good citizenship should not be 
stifled, and that the rich, directly, by charity 
and beneficence, or indirectly, through their 
liberal enterprise and active thrift, should do 
som:ething for humanity and the public good. 
If wealth is the best that can be exhibited 
as a result of success, it cannot do less than 
to make its fair contribution to the welfare 
of society. This burden should not be al- 
together shifted upon those who, though 
without riches, constantly give from the re- 
sults of their nobler successes gifts that exalt 
humanity. We have a right to complain of 
the rich if, after spending their lives in 
gathering wealth, they find in its possession 
no mandate of duty, and no pleasure, save in 
the inactive and sordid contemplation of their 
hoard. 

But sordidness is not confined to those 

[253] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

whose only success consists in riches. There 
is a sordidness of education more censurable, 
though perhaps less exposed. There are 
those whose success is made up of a vast 
accumulation of education, who are as 
miserly in its possession as the most avari- 
cious among the rich. No one is justified 
in hoarding education solely for his selfish 
use. To keep it entirely in close custody, 
to take a greedy pleasure in its contemplation, 
and to utilize it only as a means of personal, 
unshared enjoyment, is more unpardonable 
than the clutch of the miser upon his 
money ; for he, in its accumulation, has been 
subjected to the cramping and narrowing in- 
fluences of avarice, while he who hoards edu- 
cation does violence to the broad and 
generous influences which accompany its 
acquisition. 

Our self-made man ought to see his course 
so plainly that it should be easy for him to 
avoid the wrong of sordidness in the posses- 
sion of any of the rewards of his success. 

The obligations of wealth and the obliga- 
tions of education are co-operative and 
equally binding. The discharge of these 
obligations involves restraint as well as 
activity. The rich man should restrain him- 

[254] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

self from harboring, or having the appear- 
ance of harboring, any feehng of purse-proud 
superiority over his less wealthy fellows. 
Without such restraint the distance is length- 
ened between him and those whom, by con- 
tact and association, he might benefit. It is 
thus, too, that envious discontent and hatred 
of the rich are engendered and perpetuated. 
So also the man of education should carefully 
keep himself from the indulgence, or seem- 
ing indulgence, in a supercilious loftiness to- 
wards his fellow-citizens. Otherwise he will 
see those whom he might improve and elevate, 
if within his reach, standing aloof, and an- 
swering every invitation to a nearer approach 
with mockery and derision. The benign 
mission of both the educated and the rich is 
among and with their fellow men of less edu- 
cation and less wealth ; and genuine, hearty 
companionship is absolutely needful to the 
success of their missions. 

While our self-made man should not fail 
in his appreciation of the importance of these 
restraints, he ought especially and with clear- 
ness to apprehend the binding force of the 
active and affirmative obligations which are 
laid upon the rewards of success. Con- 
sidered as co-operative, these obligations in 

[255] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



their aggregate are as numerous as the points 
of contact in human intercourse and as va- 
ried as the conditions of human existence ; 
and yet there should be no difhculty in their 
recognition, nor should there be any doubt 
as to the kind of success upon which each 
is imposed. Their concurrent discharge 
involves enlightened and discriminating 
charity; the inauguration and encourage- 
ment of agencies for increased culture and 
information ; intelligent liberality in business, 
with a clear regard for the interest and wel- 
fare of those who toil; a constant exemplifi- 
cation of the strength and nobility of strict 
integrity ; the incitement, by precept and ex- 
ample, to frugality and economy ; the continual 
inculcation of the benefits and usefulness of 
education in every occupation ; the stimula- 
tion of genuine patriotism ; the cultivation 
of independent and thoughtful political judg- 
ment ; and last, but by no means least, a 
hearty and helpful interest in the ministra- 
tions of religion, and the extension of a 
healthy moral sentiment. 

But while education and wealth regarded 
as rewards of success may be referred to as 
thus acting in concurrence, they are also 
subject to obligations to each other, which 

[256] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ought, without question, to be reciprocal. If 
education gives, from its accumulation, the 
culture and purifying surroundings which 
make riches in every way more useful and 
desirable, then surely wealth owes in return 
generous benefactions to those institutions 
of learning, which, in abnegation of riches, 
foster education and stimulate its growth. 
We are sometimes led to suppose, however, 
that there has been some neglect in the ad- 
justment of these obligations ; for it seems 
quite certain that if the accounts were fairly 
stated, the universities and colleges of our 
land would have a large balance to their 
credit. 

I will not close without a more specific 
reference to a particular condition of Ameri- 
can life, which sadly needs the active and 
persistent interposition of our well-con- 
structed and well-preserved self-made man. 
Evidence is constantly accumulating that at 
no point can he do more vitally useful work 
than in the field of politics. The fact that 
this word, signifying the science of govern- 
ment and the administration of public af- 
fairs, is associated in the common mind with 
sharp manipulation and smooth deceit, plainly 
shows how badly it has been " soiled with all 

[257] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ignoble use," while the contempt with which 
self-seeking candidacy and party subservi- 
ency, even in a canvass now pending, speaks 
of disinterested citizens organized to secure 
good government, as " a modern school of 
doctrinaires," and as " college professors," 
startlingly illustrates how confidently arro- 
gant partisanship dares to insult thoughtful 
and intelligent citizenship. 

Since our hope of the perpetual endurance 
of our government, as the source of priceless 
benefit to the American people, and as proof 
of man's right and fitness to govern himself, 
must rest upon the people's intelligence and 
patriotism, these should be carefully pro- 
tected against malign agencies which con- 
tinually attempt to undermine them ; and 
they should be constantly supported and re- 
enforced by the thoughtful educated men of 
the land. Already a dangerous advantage 
has been gained by the forces of reckless- 
ness and selfishness, largely through the in- 
difference of those who should have chal- 
lenged their first advance ; and now, when 
partisanship without giving reasons assumes 
to lead, and hosts without reason seem will- 
ing to follow, and when party organization, 
which should be the servant of intelligence 

[258] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

and patriotism, proclaims itself their master, 
and attempts to bind them hand and foot, 
the time has surely come when all the in- 
telligence and education of our land should 
hear a call to duty. 

To say nothing of actual danger to our in- 
stitutions, all must see that we cannot gain 
their most beneficent results, if the best in- 
telligence and the most disinterested patriot- 
ism among our people either refuse to enter 
the field of politics, or allow themselves to 
be driven from it. 

I am not condemning party allegiance 
founded on reason and judgment. Party 
men we may all well be ; but only with the 
reservation that thoughtful and patriotic 
citizens we must be. 

In our public life we may be sure that, as 
a general rule, our servants and agents will 
be no better than the people who create 
them. They may be infinitely worse 
through the people's neglect or betrayal. 

Therefore no true American should be 
willing to endanger the interests involved in 
his citizenship, nor the pride which every 
good man has in the maintenance before the 
world of the high character of his govern- 
ment, by inaction, or a careless indication of 

[259] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



his choice for those to be intrusted with 
national affairs. 

If the popular will in this regard should 
be voiced by the intelligence and patriotism 
of our countrymen, and if they should be 
alert and exacting in the enforcement of 
their will, the danger of misgovernment and of 
a misrepresentation of our national character 
would pass away. A just people, willing to 
concede equal rights and privileges to every 
citizen, would enforce justice and equality 
in their government ; a frugal and economi- 
cal people would command frugality and 
economy in public administration ; a people 
who valued integrity and morality would ex- 
act them in high places ; a people who held 
sacred the honor of their country would in- 
sist upon its scrupulous protection and de- 
fense; and a people who love peace would 
not again suffer the humiliation of seeing 
dashed from their proud grasp the almost 
ripened hope of leadership among the na- 
tions of the earth, in the high mission of 
driving out the cruel barbarities of war by 
the advent of the pacific methods of inter- 
national arbitration. 

Happy is the land where examples of 
heroism and wise statesmanship abound, but 

[260] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

happier far is the land where the people 
rule; and fortunate above all are those peo- 
ple when their government is controlled, 
watched, and defended by the virtue, patriot- 
ism, and intelligence of millions of truly self- 
made men. 



[261] 



National Duties 

Address delivered by Vice-President 
Roosevelt at Minnesota State Fair, 
September 2, 1901.* 

IN his admirable series of studies of 
twentieth-century problems, Dr. Ly- 
man Abbott has pointed out that we 
are a nation of pioneers; that the first col- 
onists to our shores were pioneers, and that 
pioneers selected out from among the de- 
scendants of these early pioneers, mingled 
with others selected afresh from the Old 
World, pushed westward into the wilderness 
and laid the foundations for new common- 
wealths. They were men of hope and ex- 
pectation, of enterprise and energy ; for the 
men of dull content or more dull despair had 
no part in the great movement into and 
across the New World. Our country has 
been populated by pioneers, and therefore it 
has in it more energy, more enterprise, more 

* From ♦* The Strenuous Life," by permission ot The Century 
Company. 

[262] 



expansive power than any other in the wide 

^°You whom I am now addressing stand for 
the most part but one generation removed 
from these pioneers. You are typical Amer- 
icans, for you have done the great, the char- 
acteristic, the typical work of our American 
life In making homes and carving out 
careers for yourselves and your children you 
have built up this State. Throughout our 
history the success of the home-maker has 
been but another name for the upbuildmg of 
the nation. The men who with axe m the 
forests and pick in the mountains and plow 
on the prairies pushed to completion the do- 
minion of our people over the American 
wilderness have given the definite shape to 
our nation. They have shown the qualities 
of daring, endurance, and far-sightedness, o 
ea.er de^sire for victory and stubborn refusal 
to°accept defeat, which go to make up the 
essential manliness of the American charac- 
ter Above all, they have recognized m 
practical form the fundamental law of success 
fn American lif e - the law of worthy wo^k 
the law of high, resolute endeavor. We have 
but little room among our people for the 
timid, the irresolute, and the idle; and it is 

[263] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

no less true that there is scant room in the 
world at large for the nation with mighty 
thews that dares not to be great. 

Surely in speaking to the sons of the. men 
who actually did the rough and hard and in- 
finitely glorious work of making the great 
Northwest what it now is, I need hardly in- 
sist upon the righteousness of this doctrine. 
In your own vigorous lives you show by 
every act how scant is your patience with 
those who do not see in the life of effort the 
life supremely worth living. Sometimes we 
hear those who do not work spoken of with 
envy. Surely the willfully idle need arouse 
in the breast of a healthy man no emotion 
stronger than that of contempt — at the out- 
side no emotion stronger than angry con- 
tempt. The feeling of envy would have in 
it an admission of inferiority on our part, to 
which the men who know not the sterner 
joys of life are not entitled. Poverty is a 
bitter thing; but it is not as bitter as the 
existence of restless vacuity and physical, 
moral, and intellectual flabbiness, to which 
those doom themselves who elect to spend 
all their years in that vainest of all vain pur- 
suits — the pursuit of mere pleasure as a 
sufficient end in itself. The willfully idle 

[264] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

man, like the willfully barren woman, has no 
place in a sane, healthy, and vigorous com- 
munity. Moreover, the gross and hideous 
selfishness for which each stands defeats 
even its own miserable aims. Exactly as 
infinitely the happiest woman is she who has 
borne and brought up many healthy children, 
so infinitely the happiest man is he who has 
toiled hard and successfully in his life-work. 
The work may be done in a thousand differ- 
ent ways — with the brain or the hands, in 
the study, the field, or the workshop— if it 
is honest work, honestly done and well worth 
doing, that is all we have a right to ask. 
Every father and mother here, if they are 
wise, will bring up their children not to shirk 
difficulties, but to meet them and overcome 
them ; not to strive after a life of ignoble 
ease but to strive to do their duty, first to 
themselves and their families, and then to 
the whole State ; and this duty must inevi- 
tably take the shape of work in some form or 
other You, the sons of the pioneers, if you 
are true to your ancestry, must make your 
lives as worthy as they made theirs. They 
sought for true success, and therefore they did 
not seek ease. They knew that success comes 
only to those who lead the life of endeavor. 

[265] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



It seems to me that the simple acceptance 
of this fundamental fact of American life, 
this acknowledgment that the law of our 
work is the fundamental law of our be- 
ing, will help us to start aright in facing 
not a few of the problems that confront us 
from without and from within. As regards 
internal affairs, it should teach us the prime 
need of remembering that, after all has been 
said and done, the chief factor in any man's 
success or failure must be his own character 
— that is, the sum of his common sense, his 
courage, his virile energy and capacity. 
Nothing can take the place of this individual 
factor. 

I do not for a moment mean that much 
cannot be done to supplement it. Besides 
each one of us working individually, all of 
us have got to work together. We cannot 
possibly do our best work as a nation unless 
all of us know how to act in combination 
as well as how to act each individually for 
himself. The acting in combination can 
take many forms, but of course its most 
effective form must be when it comes in the 
shape of law — that is, of action by the com- 
munity as a whole through the law-making 

body. 

[266] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

But it is not possible ever to insure pros- 
perity merely by law. Something for good 
can be done by law, and a bad law can do an 
infinity of mischief; but, after all, the best 
law can only prevent wrong and injustice, 
and give to the thrifty, the far-seeing, and 
the hard-working a chance to exercise to 
best advantage their special and peculiar 
abilities. No hard-and-fast rule can be laid 
dow^n as to where our legislation shall stop 
in interfering between man and man, be- 
tween interest and interest. All that can 
be said is that it is highly undesirable, on the 
one hand, to weaken individual initiative, 
and, on the other hand, that in a constantly 
increasing number of cases we shall find it 
necessary in the future to shackle cunning 
as in the past we have shackled force. It is 
not only highly desirable but necessary that 
there should be legislation which shall care- 
fully shield the interests of wage-workers, 
and which shall discriminate in favor of the 
honest and humane employer by removing 
the disadvantage under which he stands 
when compared with unscrupulous competi- 
tors who have no conscience and will do 
right only under fear of punishment. 

Nor can legislation stop only with what 

[267] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

are termed labor questions. The vast indi- 
vidual and corporate fortunes, the vast com- 
binations of capital, which have marked the 
development of our industrial system create 
new conditions, and necessitate a change 
from the old attitude of the State and the 
nation toward property. It is probably true 
that the large majority of the fortunes that 
now exist in this country have been amassed 
not by injuring our people, but as an inci- 
dent to the conferring of great benefits upon 
the community; and this, no matter what 
may have been the conscious purpose of 
those amassing them. There is but the 
scantiest justification for most of the outcry 
against the men of wealth as such; and it 
ought to be unnecessary to state that any 
appeal which directly or indirectly leads to 
suspicion and hatred among ourselves, which 
tends to limit opportunity, and therefore to 
shut the door of success against poor men 
of talent, and, finally, which entails the pos- 
sibility of lawlessness and violence, is an 
attack upon the fundamental properties of 
American citizenship. Our interests are at 
bottom common ; in the long run we go up 
or go down together. Yet more and more 
it is evident that the State, and if necessary 

[268] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

the nation, has got to possess the right of 
supervision and control as regards the great 
corporations which are its creatures; par- 
ticularly as regards the great business com- 
binations which derive a portion of their 
importance from the existence of some mo- 
nopolistic tendency. The right should be 
exercised with caution and self-restraint ; but 
it should exist, so that it may be invoked if 
the need arises. 

So much for our duties, each to himself 
and each to his neighbor, within the limits 
of our own country. But our country, as it 
strides forward with ever-increasing rapidity 
to a foremost place among the world pow- 
ers, must necessarily find, more and more, 
that it has world duties also. There are 
excellent people who believe that we can 
shirk these duties and yet retain our self- 
respect ; but these good people are in error. 
Other good people seek to deter us from 
treading the path of hard but lofty duty by 
bidding us remember that all nations that 
have achieved greatness, that have expanded 
and played their part as world powers, have 
in the end passed away. So they have; and 
so have all others. The weak and the sta- 
tionary have vanished as surely as, and 

[269] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

more rapidly than, those whose citizens felt 
within them the lift that impels generous 
souls to great and noble effort. This is 
only another way of stating the universal 
law of death, which is itself part of the uni- 
versal law of life. The man who works, the 
man who does great deeds, in the end dies 
as surely as the veriest idler who cumbers 
the earth's surface ; but he leaves behind 
him the great fact that he has done his 
work well. So it is with nations. While 
the nation that has dared to be great, that 
has had the will and the power to change 
the destiny of the ages, in the end must die, 
yet no less surely the nation that has played 
the part of the weakling must also die ; and 
whereas the nation that has done nothing 
leaves nothing behind it, the nation that has 
done a great work really continues, though 
in changed form, to live forevermore. The 
Roman has passed away exactly as all the 
nations of antiquity which did not expand 
when he expanded have passed away ; but 
their very memory has vanished, while he 
himself is still a living force throughout the 
wide world in our entire civilization of to-day, 
and will so continue through countless gen- 
erations, through untold ages. 

[270] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

It is because we believe with all our heart 
and soul in the greatness of this country, 
because we feel the thrill of hardy life in 
our veins, and are confident that to us is 
given the privilege of playing a leading part 
in the century that has just opened, that 
we hail with eager delight the opportunity 
to do whatever task Providence may allot 
us. We admit with all sincerity that our 
first duty is within our own household ; that 
we must not merely talk, but act, in favor of 
cleanliness and decency and righteousness, 
in all political, social, and civic matters. No 
prosperity and no glory can save a nation 
that is rotten at heart. We must ever keep 
the core of our national being sound, and 
see to it that not only our citizens in pri- 
vate life, but, above all, our statesmen in 
public life, practice the old commonplace 
virtues which from time immemorial have 
lain at the root of all true national well- 
being. Yet while this is our first duty, it is 
not our whole duty. Exactly as each man, 
while doing first his duty to his wife and 
the children within his home, must yet, if he 
hopes to amount to much, strive mightily in 
the world outside his home, so our nation, 
while first of all seeing to its own domestic 

[271] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

well-being, must not shrink from playing its 
part among the great nations without. Our 
duty may take many forms in the future as 
it has taken many forms in the past. Nor 
is it possible to lay down a hard-and-fast 
rule for all cases. We must ever face the 
fact of our shifting national needs, of the 
always-changing opportunities that present 
themselves. But we may be certain of one 
thing : whether we wish it or not, we cannot 
avoid hereafter having duties to do in the 
face of other nations. All that we can do is 
to settle whether we shall perform these 
duties well or ill. 

Right here let me make as vigorous a plea 
as I know how in favor of saying nothing 
that we do not mean, and of acting without 
hesitation up to whatever we say. A good 
many of you are probably acquainted with 
the old proverb : *' Speak softly and carry a 
big stick — you will go far." If a man con- 
tinually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big 
stick will not save him from trouble ; and 
neither will speaking softly avail, if back of 
the softness there does not lie strength, 
power. In private life there are few beings 
more obnoxious than the man who is always 
loudly boasting; and if the boaster is not 

[272] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

prepared to back up his words his position 
becomes absolutely contemptible. So it is 
with the nation. It is both foolish and un- 
dignified to indulge in undue self-glorifi- 
cation, and, above all, in loose-tongued 
denunciation of other peoples. Whenever 
on any point we come in contact with a 
foreign power, I hope that we shall always 
strive to speak courteously and respectfully 
of that foreign power. Let us make it 
evident that we intend to do justice. Then 
let us make it equally evident that we will 
not tolerate injustice being done to us in 
return. Let us further make it evident that 
we use no words which we are not prepared 
to back up with deeds, and that while our 
speech is always moderate, we are ready and 
willing to make it good. Such an attitude 
will be the surest possible guaranty of that 
self-respecting peace, the attainment of 
which is and must ever be the prime aim 
of a self-governing people. 

This is the attitude we should take as re- 
gards the Monroe Doctrine. There is not 
the least need of blustering about it. Still 
less should it be used as a pretext for our own 
aggrandizement at the expense of any other 
American state. But, most emphatically, we 

[273] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

must make it evident that we intend on this 
point ever to maintain the old American posi- 
tion. Indeed, it is hard to understand how 
any man can take any other position, now 
that we are all looking forward to the 
building of the Isthmian Canal. The Mon- 
roe Doctrine is not international law; but 
there is no necessity that it should be. All 
that is needful is that it should continue to 
be a cardinal feature of American policy on 
this continent ; and the Spanish-American 
states should, in their own interests, cham- 
pion it as strongly as we do. We do not by 
this doctrine intend to sanction any policy 
of aggression by one American common- 
wealth at the expense of any other, nor any 
policy of commercial discrimination against 
any foreign power whatsoever. Commer- 
cially, as far as this doctrine is concerned, 
all we wish is a fair field and no favor; but 
if we are wise we shall strenuously insist 
that under no pretext whatsoever shall there 
be any territorial aggrandizement on Ameri- 
can soil by any European power, and this, 
no matter what form the territorial aggran- 
dizement may take. 

We most earnestly hope and believe that 
the chance of our having any hostile mili- 

[274] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

tary complication with any foreign power 
is very small. But that there will come a 
strain, a jar, here and there, from commer- 
cial and agricultural — that is, from in- 
dustrial — competition, is almost inevitable. 
Here again we have got to remember that 
our first duty is to our own people, and yet 
that we can best get justice by doing justice. 
We must continue the policy that has been 
so brilliantly successful in the past, and so 
shape our economic system as to give every 
advantage to the skill, energy, and intel- 
ligence of our farmers, merchants, manufac- 
turers, and wage-workers ; and yet we must 
also remember, in dealing with other nations, 
that benefits must be given where benefits 
are sought. It is not possible to dogmatize 
as to the exact way of attaining this end, for 
the exact conditions cannot be foretold. In 
the long run, one of our prime needs is 
stability and continuity in economic policy; 
and yet, through treaty or by direct legisla- 
lation, it may, at least in certain cases, be- 
come advantageous to supplement our pres- 
ent policy by a system of reciprocal benefit 
and obligation. 

Throughout a large part of our national 
career our history has been one of expan- 

[275] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

sion, the expansion being of different kinds 
at different times. This expansion is not a 
matter of regret, but of pride. It is vain to 
tell a people as masterful as ours that the 
spirit of enterprise is not safe. The true 
American has never feared to run risks 
when the prize to be won was of suf^cient 
value. No nation capable of self-govern- 
ment, and of developing by its own efforts a 
sane and orderly civilization, no matter how 
small it may be, has anything to fear from 
us. Our dealings with Cuba illustrate this, 
and should be forever a subject of just na- 
tional pride. We speak in no spirit of arro- 
gance when we state as a simple historic fact 
that never in recent times has any great 
nation acted with such disinterestedness as 
we have shown in Cuba. We freed the 
island from the Spanish yoke. We then 
earnestly did our best to help the Cubans 
in the establishment of free education, of 
law and order, of material prosperity, of the 
cleanliness necessary to sanitary well-being 
in their great cities. We did all this at great 
expense of treasure, at some expense of life ; 
and now we are establishing them in a free 
and independent commonwealth, and have 
asked in return nothing whatever save that 

[276] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

at no time shall their independence be 
prostituted to the advantage of some foreign 
rival of ours, or so as to menace our well- 
being. To have failed to ask this would 
have amounted to national stultification on 
our part. 

In the Philippines we have brought peace, 
and we are at this mom^ent giving them such 
freedom and self-government as they could 
never under any conceivable conditions have 
obtained had we turned them loose to sink 
into a welter of blood and confusion, or 
to become the prey of some strong tyranny 
without or within. The bare recital of the 
facts is sufficient to show that we did our 
duty; and what prouder title to honor can a 
nation have than to have done its duty? We 
have done our duty to ourselves, and we 
have done the higher duty of promoting the 
civilization of mankind. The first essential 
of civilization is law. Anarchy is simply the 
handmaiden and forerunner of tyranny and 
despotism. Law and order enforced with 
justice and by strength lie at the founda- 
tions of civilization. Law must be based 
upon justice, else it cannot stand, and it must 
be enforced with resolute firmness, because 
weakness in enforcing it means in the end 

[277] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

that there is no justice and no law, nothing 
but the rule of disorderly and unscrupulous 
strength. Without the habit of orderly 
obedience to the law, without the stern en- 
forcement of the laws at the expense of 
those who defiantly resist them, there can be 
no possible progress, moral or material, in 
civilization. There can be no weakening of 
the law-abiding spirit here at home, if we 
are permanently to succeed; and just as lit- 
tle can we afford to show weakness abroad. 
Lawlessness and anarchy were put down in 
the Philippines as a prerequisite to intro- 
ducing the reign of justice. 

Barbarism has, and can have, no place in 
a civilized world. It is our duty toward the 
people living in barbarism to see that they 
are freed from their chains, and we can free 
them only by destroying barbarism itself. 
The missionary, the merchant, and the sol- 
dier may each have to play a part in this 
destruction, and in the consequent uplifting 
of the people. Exactly as it is the duty of 
a civilized power scrupulously to respect the 
rights of all weaker civilized powers and 
gladly to help those who are struggling 
toward civilization, so it is its duty to put 
down savagery and barbarism. As in such 

[278] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

a work human instruments must be used, 
and as human instruments are imperfect, 
this means that at times there will be injus- 
tice ; that at times merchant or soldier, or 
even missionary, may do wrong. Let us 
instantly condemn and rectify such wrong 
when it occurs, and if possible punish the 
wrong-doer. But shame, thrice shame to us, 
if we are so foolish as to make such occa- 
sional wrong-doing an excuse for failing to 
perform a great and righteous task. Not 
only in our own land, but throughout the 
world, throughout all history, the advance of 
civilization has been of incalculable benefit 
to mankind, and those through whom it has 
advanced deserve the highest honor. All 
honor to the missionary, all honor to the 
soldier, all honor to the merchant who now 
in our own day have done so much to bring 
light into the world's dark places. 

Let me insist again, for fear of possible 
misconstruction, upon the fact that our duty 
is twofold, and that we must raise others 
while we are benefiting ourselves. In bring- 
ing order to the Philippines, our soldiers 
added a new page to the honor-roll of Amer- 
ican history, and they incalculably benefited 
the islanders themselves. Under the wise 

[279] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

administration of Governor Taft the islands 
now enjoy a peace and liberty of which they 
have hitherto never even dreamed. But this 
peace and liberty under the law must be sup- 
plemented by material, by industrial develop- 
ment. Every encouragement should be 
given to their commercial development, to 
the introduction of American industries and 
products ; not merely because this will be a 
good thing for our people, but infinitely 
more because it will be of incalculable bene- 
fit to the people in the Philippines. 

We shall make mistakes ; and if we let 
these mistakes frighten us from our work 
we shall show ourselves weaklings. Half a 
century ago Minnesota and the two Dakotas 
were Indian hunting grounds. We com- 
mitted plenty of blunders, and now and then 
worse than blunders, in our dealings with the 
Indians. But who does not admit at the 
present day that we were right in wresting 
from barbarism and adding to civilization 
the territory out of which we have made 
these beautiful States } And now we are 
civilizing the Indian and putting him on a 
level to which he could never have attained 
under the old conditions. 

In the Philippines let us remember that 

[280] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

the spirit and not the mere form of govern- 
ment is the essential matter. The Tagalogs 
have a hundredfold the freedom under us 
that they would have if we had abandoned 
the islands. We are not trying to subjugate 
a people ; we are trying to develop them and 
make them a law-abiding, industrious, and 
educated people, and we hope ultimately 
a self-governing people. In short, in the 
work we have done we are but carrying out 
the true principles of our democracy. We 
work in a spirit of self-respect for ourselves 
and of good will toward others, in a spirit 
of love for and of infinite faith in man- 
kind. We do not blindly refuse to face the 
evils that exist, or the shortcomings inher- 
ent in humanity ; but across blundering 
and shirking, across selfishness and mean- 
ness of motive, across short-sightedness and 
cowardice, we gaze steadfastly toward the 
far horizon of golden triumph. If you will 
study our past history as a nation you will 
see we have made many blunders and have 
been guilty of many shortcomings, and yet 
that we have always in the end come out 
victorious because we have refused to be 
daunted by blunders and defeats, have rec- 
ognized them, but have persevered in spite of 

[281] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

them. So it must be in the future. We gird 
up our loins as a nation, with the stern pur- 
pose to play our part manfully in winning 
the ultimate triumph ; and therefore we turn 
scornfully aside from the paths of mere ease 
and idleness, and with unfaltering steps 
tread the rough road of endeavor, smiting 
down the wrong and battling for the right, 
as Greatheart smote and battled in Bunyan's 
immortal story. 



[282] 



President McKin- 
ley's Last Speech 

Delivered at the Pan-American Exposi- 
tion, Buffalo, N. Y., September 5, 
1901. 

President Milburn, Director-General Bu- 
chanan^ Commissioners, Ladies and Gentle- 
vten : 

AM glad to again be in the city of Buf- 
falo and exchange greetings with her 
people, to whose generous hospitality 
I am not a stranger, and with whose good 
will I have been repeatedly and signally 
honored. To-day I have additional satisfac- 
tion in meeting and giving welcome to 
the foreign representatives assembled here, 
whose presence and participation in this Ex- 
position have contributed in so marked a 
degree to its interest and success. To the 
Commissioners of the Dominion of Canada 
and the British Colonies, the French Col- 
onies, the republics of Mexico and of Central 

[283] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

and South America, and the Commissioners 
of Cuba and Porto Rico, who share with us 
in this undertaking, we give the hand of 
fellowship, and felicitate with them upon the 
triumphs of art, science, education and man- 
ufacture, which the old has bequeathed to 
the new century. 

Expositions are the time-keepers of prog- 
ress. They record the world's advancement. 
They stimulate the energy, enterprise and 
intellect of the people, and quicken human 
genius. They go into the home. They 
broaden and brighten the daily life of the 
people. They open mighty storehouses of 
information to the student. Every exposi- 
tion, great or small, has helped to some 
onward step. 

Comparison of ideas is always educational, 
and as such instructs the brain and hand of 
men. Friendly rivalry follows, which is the 
spur to industrial improvement, the inspira- 
tion to useful invention and to high en- 
deavor in all departments of human activity. 
It exacts a study of the wants, comforts, and 
even the whims of the people, and recog- 
nizes the efficacy of high quality and low 
prices to win their favor. The quest for 
trade is an incentive to men of business to 

[284] 



THE AMERICA N IDEA 

devise, invent, improve, and economize in the 
cost of production. Business life, whether 
among ourselves or with other peoples, is 
ever a sharp struggle for success. It will be 
none the less so in the future. Without 
competition we would be clinging to the 
clumsy and antiquated processes of farming 
and manufacture, and the methods of busi- 
ness of long ago, and the twentieth would 
be no further advanced than the eighteenth 
century. But though commercial competi- 
tors we are, commercial enemies we must 
not be. 

The Pan-American Exposition has done 
its work thoroughly; presenting in its ex- 
hibits evidences of the highest skill and 
illustrating the progress of the human family 
in the western hemisphere. This portion of 
the earth has no cause for humiliation for 
the part it has performed in the march of 
civilization. It has not accomplished every- 
thing; far from it. It has simply done its 
best, and without vanity or boastfulness, and 
recognizing the manifold achievements of 
others, it invites the friendly rivalry of all 
the Powers in the peaceful pursuits of trade 
and commerce, and will co-operate with all 
in advancing the highest and best interests 

[285] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

of humanity. The wisdom and energy of 
all the nations are none too great for the 
world's work. The success of art, science, 
industry, and invention is an international 
asset, and a common glory. 

After all, how near one to the other is 
every part of the world. Modern inventions 
have brought into close relation widely 
separated peoples and made them better 
acquainted. Geographic and political divis- 
ions will continue to exist, but distances 
have been effaced. Swift ships and fast 
trains are becoming cosmopolitan. They 
invade fields which a few years ago were im- 
penetrable. The world's products are ex- 
changed as never before and with increasing 
transportation facilities come increasing 
knowledge and larger trade. Prices are 
fixed with mathematical precision by supply 
and demand. The world's selling prices are 
regulated by market and crop reports. We 
travel greater distances in a shorter space of 
time and with more ease than was ever 
dreamed of by the fathers. Isolation is no 
longer possible or desirable. The sam.e 
important news is read, though in different 
languages, the same day in all Christendom. 

The telegraph keeps us advised of what 

[286] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

is occurring everywhere, and the press fore- 
shadows, with more or less accuracy, the 
plans and purposes of the nations. Market 
prices of products and of securities are 
hourly known in every commercial mart, and 
the investments of the people extend beyond 
their own national boundaries into the re- 
motest parts of the earth. Vast transactions 
are conducted and international exchanges 
are made by the tick of the cable. Every 
event of interest is immediately bulletined. 
The quick gathering and transmission of 
news, like rapid transit, are of recent origin, 
and are only made possible by the genius of 
the inventor and the courage of the investor. 
It took a special messenger of the Govern- 
ment, with every facility known at the time 
for rapid travel, nineteen days to go from 
the city of Washington to New Orleans with 
a message to General Jackson that the war 
with England had ceased and a treaty of 
peace had been signed. How different now! 
We reached General Miles, in Porto Rico, 
and he was able through the military tele- 
graph to stop his army on the firing line 
with the message that the United States and 
Spain had signed a protocol suspending hos- 
tilities. We knew almost instantly of the 

[287] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

first shots fired at Santiago, and the subse- 
quent surrender of the Spanish forces was 
known at Washington within less than an 
hour of its consummation. The first ship of 
Cervera's fleet had hardly emerged from that 
historic harbor when the fact was flashed to 
our Capital, and the swift destruction that 
followed was announced immediately through 
the wonderful medium of telegraphy. 

So accustomed are we to safe and easy 
communication with distant lands that its 
temporary interruption, even in ordinary 
times, results in loss and inconvenience. We 
shall never forget the days of anxious wait- 
ing and suspense when no information was 
permitted to be sent from Pekin, and the 
diplomatic representatives of the nations in 
China, cut off from all communication, inside 
and outside of the walled capital, were sur- 
rounded by an angry and misguided mob 
that threatened their lives ; nor the joy that 
thrilled the world when a single message 
from the Government of the United States 
brought, through our Minister, the first news 
of the safety of the besieged diplomats. 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century 
there was not a mile of steam railroad on the 
globe ; now there are enough miles to make 

[288] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

its circuit many times. Then there was not 
a line of electric telegraph ; now we have a 
vast mileage traversing all lands and all seas. 
God and man have linked the nations to- 
gether. No nation can longer be indifferent 
to any other. And as we are brought more 
and more in touch with each other, the less 
occasion is there for misunderstandings, and 
the stronger the disposition, when we have 
differences, to adjust them in the court of 
arbitration, which is the noblest forum for 
the settlement of international disputes. 

My fellow citizens, trade statistics indi- 
cate that this country is in a state of un- 
exampled prosperity. The figures are almost 
appalling. They show that we are utilizing 
our fields and forests and mines, and that 
we are furnishing profitable employment to 
the millions of w^orkingmen throughout the 
United States, bringing comfort and happi- 
ness to their homes, and making it possible 
to lay by savings for old age and disability. 
That all the people are participating in this 
great prosperity is seen in every American 
community and shown by the enormous and 
unprecedented deposits in our savings banks. 
Our duty in the care and security of these 
deposits and their safe investment demands 

[289] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

the highest integrity and the best business 
capacity of those in charge of these deposi- 
tories of the people's earnings. 

We have a vast and intricate business, 
built up through years of toil and struggle, 
in which every part of the country has its 
stake, which will not permit of either neglect, 
or of undue selfishness. No narrow, sordid 
policy will subserve it. The greatest skill 
and wisdom on the part of manufacturers 
and producers will be required to hold and 
increase it. Our industrial enterprises, which 
have grown to such great proportions, affect 
the homes and occupations of the people and 
the welfare of the country. Our capacity to 
produce has developed so enormously, and 
our products have so multiplied, that the 
problem of more markets requires our urgent 
and immediate attention. Only a broad and 
enlightened policy will keep what we have. 
No other policy will get more. In these 
times of marvelous business energy and 
gain we ought to be looking to the future, 
strengthening the weak places in our indus- 
trial and commercial systems, that we may 
be ready for any storm or strain. 

By sensible trade arrangements which will 
not interrupt our home production we shall 

[290] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

extend the outlets for our increasing surplus. 
A system which provides a mutual exchange 
of commodities is manifestly essential to the 
continued and healthful growth of our ex- 
port trade. We must not repose in fancied 
security that we can forever sell everything 
and buy little or nothing. If such a thing 
were possible it would not be best for us or 
for those with whom we deal. We should 
take from our customers such of their prod- 
ucts as we can use without harm to our 
industries and labor. Reciprocity is the 
natural outgrowth of our wonderful indus- 
trial development under the domestic policy 
now firmly established. 

What we produce beyond our domestic 
consumption must have a vent abroad. The 
excess must be relieved through a foreign 
outlet, and we should sell everywhere we can 
and buy wherever the buying will enlarge 
our sales and productions, and thereby make 
a greater demand for home labor. 

The period of exclusiveness is past. The 
expansion of our trade and commerce is the 
pressing problem. Commercial wars are 
unprofitable. A policy of good will and 
friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals. 
Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the 

[291] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 



spirit of the times; measures of retaliation 
are not. If, perchance, some of our tariffs 
are no longer needed for revenue or to en- 
courage and protect our industries at home, 
why should they not be employed to extend 
and promote our markets abroad ? Then, 
too, we have inadequate steamship service. 
New lines of steamships have already been 
put in commission between the Pacific coast 
ports of the United States and those on the 
western coasts of Mexico and Central and 
South America. These should be followed 
up with direct steamship lines between the 
eastern coast of the United States and South 
American ports. One of the needs of the 
times is direct commercial lines from our 
vast fields of production to the fields of con- 
sumption that we have but barely touched. 
Next in advantage to having the thing to 
sell is to have the conveyance to carry it to 
the buyer. We must encourage our mer- 
chant marine. We must have more ships. 
They must be under the American flag, 
built and manned and owned by Americans. 
These will not only be profitable in a com- 
mercial sense ; they will be messengers of 
peace and amity wherever they go. 

We must build the Isthmian Canal, which 

[292] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

will unite the two oceans and give a straight 
line of watercommunication with the western 
coasts of Central and South America and 
Mexico. The construction of a Pacific cable 
cannot be longer postponed. In the further- 
ance of these objects of national interest 
and concern you are performing an impor- 
tant part. This Exposition would have 
touched the heart of that American statesman 
whose mind was ever alert and thought ever 
constant for a larger commerce and a truer 
fraternity of the republics of the New 
World. His broad American spirit is felt 
and manifested here. He needs no identi- 
fication to an assemblage of Americans any- 
w^here, for the name of Blaine is inseparably 
associated with the Pan-American movement 
which finds here practical and substantial ex- 
pression, and which we all hope will be firmly 
advanced by the Pan-American Congress 
that assembles this autumn in the capital of 
Mexico. The good work will go on. It 
cannot be stopped. These buildings will 
disappear, this creation of art and beauty 
and industry will perish from sight, but their 
influence will remain to 

' ' Make it live beyond its too short living 
With praises and thanksgiving. ' ' 
[293] 



THE AMERIC AN IDEA 

Who can tell the new thoughts that have 
been awakened, the ambitions fired and the 
high achievements that will be wrought 
through this Exposition ? 

Let us ever remember that our interest is 
in concord, not conflict ; and that our real 
eminence rests in the victories of peace, not 
those of war. We hope that all who are 
represented here may be moved to higher 
and nobler effort for their own and the 
world's good, and that out of this city may 
come not only greater commerce and trade 
for us all ; but, more essential than these, re- 
lations of mutual respect, confidence, and 
friendship which will deepen and endure. 
Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously 
vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace 
to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all 
the peoples and powers of earth. 



[294] 




Free Speech and Con- 
stitutional Liberty 

Extract from an Address by United 
States Senator Hoar at the Re- 
publican State Convention, Boston, 
October 4, 1901. 

[In referring to the assassination of President McKinley, Mr. 
Hoar said:] 

E can undoubtedly provide some ad- 
ditional legal safeguards against 
the recurrence of this terrible 
crime. We can, I suppose, make the 
preaching, counseling, or advising the killing 
of or doing violence to our National officers, 
high or low, or those of foreign countries, an 
offense against our National law, punishable 
with severe penalties. We can, if we think 
fit, make the conspiring to accomplish this 
punishable with death, or any overt act or 
attempt to accomplish it punishable with 
death. We may, perhaps, devise some addi- 
tional security against the coming into our 
ports of criminal persons known to entertain 

[295] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

the purposes of carrying out anarchists' sen- 
timents by overt acts. I dare say that other 
protections may be devised. 

But we cannot give up free speech or con- 
stitutional liberty because of the danger of 
a recurrence of such crimes. We cannot 
abandon free speech or constitutional liberty 
for fear of Guiteau or Czolgosz. We may as 
well desert our habitations in our beautiful 
fields or on the banks of our rivers and 
lakes, because science has discovered that 
the mosquito carries on his sting a poison 
fatal to human life. The restraining of free 
speech and of the free press, disagreeable as 
are their excesses, must come in the main 
from the individual's sense of duty, and not 
by law. There are already some comforting 
signs of returning health in this matter. 
Yellow journalism is already being rebuked 
by the yellowest of yellow journals. 

Let it be understood, as a most important 
practical lesson for the State, that while 
political sentiments and political measures 
are to be denounced if they seem dangerous 
to the State, or contrary to righteousness or 
justice, or constitutional liberty, with the 
most unsparing fearlessness, yet the arro- 
gant demand of any man to penetrate the in- 

[296] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

dividual soul of his neighbor, and to judge 
of his motives or personal worth by what 
seems to be the error of his political opinions, 
is that presumptuous and arrogant Pharisa- 
ism which excited to its sublimest wrath 
the gentle spirit of the Saviour of mankind. 
It was the publican and not the Pharisee 
who went back to his house justified rather 
than the other. " Judge not that ye be not 
judged " is the divine command. And the 
divine penalty is that "with what judgment 
ye judge ye shall be judged." 

You and I are Republicans. You and I 
are men of the North. Most of us are 
Protestants in religion. We are men of na- 
tive birth. Yet, if every Republican were 
to-day to fall in his place, as William Mc- 
Kinley has fallen, I believe our countrymen 
of the other party, in spite of what we deem 
their errors, would take the Republic and 
bear on the flag to liberty and glory. I be- 
lieve if every Protestant were to be stricken 
down by a lightning stroke that our brethren 
of the Catholic faith would still carry on the 
Republic in the spirit of a true and liberal 
freedom. I believe if every man of native 
birth within our borders were to die this 
day, the men of foreign birth, who have come 

[297] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

here to seek homes and liberty under the 
shadow of the Republic, would carry on the 
Republic in God's appointed way. I believe 
if every man of the North were to die, the 
new and chastened South, with the virtues it 
has cherished from the beginning, of love of 
home and love of State and love of freedom, 
with its courage and its constancy, would 
take the country and bear it on to the 
achievement of its lofty destiny. The anar- 
chist must slay seventy-five million Ameri- 
cans before he can slay the Republic. 

Of course, there would be mistakes. Of 
course, there would be disappointments and 
grievous errors. Of course, there would be 
many things for which the lovers of liberty 
would mourn. But America would survive 
them all, and the Nation our fathers planted 
would abide in perennial life. 



[298] 



Our Recent Diplomacy 



Speech of John Hay, Secretary of State, 
IN Reply to the Toast of " Our Re- 
cent Diplomacy" at the Dinner of 
the New York Chamber of Commerce, 
November 19, 1901. 

Mr, Chairman and Gentlemen: 

NEED not dwell upon the mournful 
and tragic event by virtue of which I 
am here. When the President lay 
stricken in Buffalo, though hope beat high 
in all our hearts that his life might be spared 
for future usefulness to his country, it was 
still recognized as improbable that he should 
be able to keep the engagement he had made 
to be with you to-night, and your committee 
did me the honor to ask me to come in 
his place. This I have sometimes done, in 
his lifetime, though always with diffidence 
and dread; but how much more am I 
daunted by the duty of appearing before you 
when that great man, loved and revered 
above all even while living, has put on the 

[299] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

august halo of immortality ! Who could 
worthily come into your presence as the 
shadow of that illustrious Shade ? 

Let me advert, but for a moment, to one 
aspect of our recent bereavement, which is 
especially interesting to those engaged, as 
you are, in relations whose scope is as wide 
as the world. Never, since history began, 
has there been an event which so imme- 
diately, and so deeply, touched the sensibili- 
ties of so vast a portion of the human race. 
The sun, which set over Lake Erie while the 
surgeons were still battling for the Presi- 
dent's life, had not risen on the Atlantic be- 
fore every capital of the civilized world was 
in mourning. And it was not from^ the cen- 
ters of civilization alone that the voices of 
sorrow and sympathy reached us ; they came 
as well from the utmost limits of the world, 
from the most remote islands of the sea ; not 
only from the courts of Christendom, but 
from the temples of strange gods and the 
homes of exotic religions. Never before 
has the heart of the world throbbed with a 
sorrow so universal. Never before have the 
kingdoms of the earth paid such homage 
at the grave of a citizen. Something of 
this was naturally due to his great office - — 

[300] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

presiding, as he did, over the government of 
a nation holding in fee the certainty of illim- 
itable greatness. But no ruler can acquire 
the instinctive regard and esteem of the 
world without possessing most unusual quali- 
ties of mind and character. This dead 
President of ours possessed them. He was 
strong ; he was wise ; he was gentle. With 
no external advantages beyond the mass of 
his fellow-citizens, he rose by sheer merit 
and will to the summit of distinction and 
power. With a growth as certain and grad- 
ual as that of an oak, he grew stronger and 
wiser with every year that he lived. Con- 
fronted continually with new and exacting 
situations, he was never unequal to them ; 
his serenity was never clouded ; he took the 
storm and the sunshine with the same 
cheery welcome ; his vast influence expanded 
with his opportunities. Like that Divine 
Master whom he humbly and reverently 
served, he grew continually " in favor with 
God and man." 

One simple reason why the millions of 
this country mourned him as if they had 
buried a brother, and why all the nations of 
the earth felt that his death was a loss to 
humanity at large, was that he loved his 

[301] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

fellow-men. There were literally no bounds 
to his lavish good will. In political genius, 
in wisdom for government, in power of con- 
trolling men, he was one of the elect of the 
earth — there were few like him ; but in sen- 
timent and feeling he was the most perfect 
democrat I ever met. He never knew what 
it meant to regard another man as his in- 
ferior, or as his superior. Nothing human 
was alien to him. Even his death was in 
that sense significant. He was slain in the 
moment when with that delightful smile we 
knew so well — which seemed like the very- 
sunshine of the spirit — he was stretching 
forth a generous hand to greet the lowest 
and meanest unit in that crowd of many 
thousands. He made no demagogical pa- 
rade of his sympathy with the masses, but 
this sympathy was a part of his life. He 
knew no interest which was not theirs ; their 
welfare was as dear to him as the blood in 
his own veins ; and in spite of calumny and 
falsehood the people knew it, and they loved 
him in return. 

Others will rise and labor and do good 
service to the Republic. We shall never 
lack good men when the emergency calls for 
them. Thank God ! we do not lack them 

[302] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

now. But it may well be doubted if in any 
century of the glorious future before us, 
there will ever appear two such sincere, high- 
minded, self-respecting lovers of the people 
as the last fifty years have shown us in 
Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley. 

But the world must go on, though the 
greatest and best beloved fall by the way. 
I dare to come to you, because you have 
asked me, and he would have wished it, for 
he held that our personal feelings should 
never be considered when they conflicted 
with a public duty. And if I fall immeas- 
urably below the standard to which he has 
accustomed you, the very comparisons you 
draw will be a tribute to his memory. 

I am asked to say something about our 
diplomacy. You want from me nothing but 
the truth ; and yet, if I confine myself to the 
truth, I cannot help fearing I shall do my 
profession a wrong in the minds of those 
who have been in the habit of considering 
diplomacy an occult science, as mysterious 
as alchemy, and as dangerous to the morals 
as municipal politics. It must be admitted 
that this conception of the diplomatic func- 
tion is not without a certain historical foun- 
dation. 

[303] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

There was a time when diplomacy was a 
science of intrigue and falsehood, of traps 
and mines and countermines. The word 
"machiavelic" has become an adjective in 
our common speech, signifying fraudulent 
craft and guile ; but Machiavel was as honest 
a man as his time justified or required. The 
King of Spain wrote to the King of France 
after the massacre of St. Bartholomew con- 
gratulating him upon the splendid dissimu- 
lation with which that stroke of policy had 
been accomplished. In the last generation 
it was thought a remarkable advance in 
straightforward diplomacy when Prince Bis- 
mark recognized the advantage of telling the 
truth, even at the risk of misleading his ad- 
versary. It may be another instance of that 
naif credulity with which I have often been 
charged by European critics when I say that 
I really believe the v/orld has moved onward 
in diplomacy as in many other matters. In 
my experience of diplomatic life, which now 
covers more years than I like to look back 
upon, and in the far greater record of 
American diplomacy which I ha/e read and 
studied, I can say without hesitation that 
we have generally told squarely what we 
wanted, announced early in negotiation 

[304] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

what we were willing to give, and allowed 
the other side to accept or reject our terms. 
During the time in which I have been prom- 
inently concerned in our foreign relations, I 
can also say that we have been met by the 
representatives of other powers in the same 
spirit of frankness and sincerity. You, as 
men of large affairs, will bear me out in 
saying there is nothing like straightforward- 
ness to beget its like. 

The comparative simplicity of our diplo- 
matic methods would be a matter of neces- 
sity if it were not of choice. Secret treaties, 
reserved clauses, private understandings, are 
impossible to us. No treaty has any validity 
until ratified by the Senate; many require 
the action of both Houses of Congress to be 
carried into effect. They must, therefore, 
be in harmony with public opinion. The 
Executive could not change this system even 
if he should ever desire to. It must be ac- 
cepted, with all its difficulties and all its ad- 
vantages ; and it has been approved by the 
experience of a hundred years. 

As to the measure of success which our re- 
cent diplomacy has met with, it is difficult, if 
not impossible, for me to speak. There are 
two important lines of human endeavor in 

[305] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

which men are forbidden even to allude to 
their success — affairs of the heart and diplo- 
matic affairs. In doing so, one not only com- 
mits a vulgarity which transcends all ques- 
tion of taste, but makes all future success im- 
possible. For this reason, the diplomatic 
representatives of the Government must fre- 
quently suffer in silence the most outrageous 
imputations upon their patriotism, their intel- 
ligence, and their common honesty. To jus- 
tify themselves before the public, they would 
sometimes have to place in jeopardy the in- 
terests of the nation. They must constantly 
adopt for themselves the motto of the French 
revolutionist, " Let my name wither, rather 
than my country be injured." 

But if we are not permitted to boast of 
what we have done, we can at least say a 
word about what we have tried to do, and 
the principles which have guided our action. 
The briefest expression of our rule of con- 
duct is, perhaps, the Monroe Doctrine and 
the Golden Rule. With this simple chart 
we can hardly go far wrong. 

I think I may say that our sister republics 
to the south of us are perfectly convinced of 
the sincerity of our attitude. They know we 
desire the prosperity of each of them, and 

[306] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

peace and harmony among them. We no 
more want their territory than we covet the 
mountains of the moon. We are grieved 
and distressed when there are differences 
among them, but even then we should never 
think of trying to compose any of those dif- 
ferences unless by the request of both parties 
to it. Not even our earnest desire for peace 
among them will lead us to any action which 
might offend their national dignity or their 
just sense of independence. We owe them 
all the consideration which we claim for 
ourselves. To critics in various climates 
who have other views of our purposes we 
can only wish fuller information and more 
quiet consciences. 

As to what we have tried to do — what 
we are still trying to do — in the general 
field of diplomacy, there is no reason for 
doubt on the one hand or reticence on the 
other. President McKinley in his messages 
during the last four years has made the sub- 
ject perfectly clear. We have striven, on 
the lines laid down by Washington, to culti- 
vate friendly relations with all powers, but 
not to take part in the formation of groups 
or combinations among them. A position 
of complete independence is not incompati- 

[307] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

ble with relations involving not friendship 
alone, but concurrent action as well in im- 
portant emergencies. We have kept always 
in view the fact that we are pre-eminently a 
peace-loving people ; that our normal activi- 
ties are in the direction of trade and com- 
merce ; that the vast development of our 
industries imperatively demands that we 
shall not only retain and confirm our hold 
on our present markets, but seek constantly, 
by all honorable means, to extend our com- 
mercial interests in every practicable direc- 
tion. It is for this reason we have negotiated 
the treaties of reciprocity which now await 
the action of the Senate ; all of them con- 
ceived in the traditional American spirit of 
protection to our own industries, and yet 
mutually advantageous to ourselves and our 
neighbors. In the same spirit we have 
sought, successfully, to induce all the great 
powers to unite in a recognition of the gen- 
eral principle of equality of commercial ac- 
cess and opportunity in the markets of the 
Orient. We believe that "a fair field and no 
favor " is all we require ; and with less than 
that we cannot be satisfied. If we accept 
the assurances we have received as honest 
and genuine, as I certainly do, that equality 

[308] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

will not be denied us ; and the result may 
safely be left to American genius and energy. 

We consider our interests in the Pacific 
Ocean as great now as those of any other 
power, and destined to indefinite develop- 
ment. We have opened our doors to the 
people of Hawaii ; we have accepted the 
responsibility of the Philippines which Provi- 
dence imposed upon us ; we have put an end 
to the embarrassing condominium in which 
we were involved in Samoa, and while 
abandoning none of our commercial rio-hts 
in the entire group, we have established our 
flag and our authority in Tutuila, which 
ofives us the finest harbor in the South Seas. 
Next in order will come a Pacific cable, and 
an isthmian canal for the use of all well-dis- 
posed peoples, but under exclusive American 
ownership and American control — of both 
of which great enterprises President Mc Kin- 
ley and President Roosevelt have been the 
energetic and consistent champions. 

Sure as we are of our rights in these 
matters, convinced as we are of the authen- 
ticity of the vision w^hich has led us thus far 
and still beckons us forward, I can yet as- 
sure you that so long as the administration 
of your affairs remains in hands as strong 

[309] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

and skillful as those to which they have 
been and are now confided, there will be no 
more surrender of our rights than there will 
be violation of the rights of others. The 
President to whom you have given your 
invaluable trust and confidence, like his 
now immortal predecessor, is as incapable of 
bullying a strong power as he is of wronging 
a weak one. He feels and knows — for has 
he not tested it, in the currents of the heady 
fiofht, as well as in the toilsome work of ad- 
ministration ? — that the nation over whose 
destinies he presides has a giant's strength 
in the works of war, as in the works of peace. 
But that consciousness of strength brings 
with it no temptation to do injury to any 
power on earth, the proudest or the humblest. 
We frankly confess we seek the friendship 
of all the powers ; we want to trade with all 
peoples ; we are conscious of resources that 
will make our commerce a source of advan- 
tage to them and of profit to ourselves. But 
no wantonness of strength will ever induce 
us to drive a hard bargain with another 
nation because it is weak, nor will any fear 
of ignoble criticism tempt us to insult or 
defy a great power because it is strong, or 
even because it is friendly. 

[310] 



THE AMERICAN IDEA 

The attitude of our diplomacy may be in- 
dicated in a text of Scripture which Franklin 
— the first and greatest of our diplomats — 
tells us passed through his mind when he 
was presented at the Court of Versailles. It 
was a text his father used to quote to him in 
the old candle shop in Boston, when he was 
a boy: " Seest thou a man diligent in his 
business ? he shall stand before kings." Let 
us be diligent in our business and we shall 
stand — stand, you see, not crawl, nor swag- 
ger — stand, as a friend and equal, asking 
nothing, putting up with nothing but what 
is right and just, among our peers, in the 
great democracy of nations. 



[311] 



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